After retiring as an executive assistant, Chestermere artist is working towards becoming a house-hold name, with her art working hanging on people’s walls.
“I’ve been making art pretty much all of my life,” said Chestermere resident of eight years, Lin Kingdon.
“As a kid, there was always art around. My mother was an artist and I just picked it up,” Kingdon said.
Kingdon is a creative person by nature, she see’s detail in the world, and is fascinated by the colours she sees.
“I just want to express what I see, it’s very rejuvenating. I can get lost in my work, and I find it very rewarding,” she said.
Kingdon doesn’t have a preference to what type of medium she works with, whether it be ink, paint, or pastels, just as long as she is creating.
“I don’t have a preference. I just know that an instructor that I had at one point said that Robert Bateman told him that painting is just like drawing with a brush and colour. That’s always stuck with me, he’s an amazing artist.
“I tried to reach [Robert Bateman’s] level, and over the years I realized that I needed to reach my own levels,” Kingdon said.
Kingdon enjoys painting birds and is wanting to experiment painting animals.
“I want to bring to the world what I see,” Kingdon said.
She added, most human beings look at something and then move on, however, she likes to delve into it and bring out the details.
When she paints an owl, anyone who looks at the painting can see detail in the ruffle of the owl’s feathers, and the sparkle in the owl’s eyes.
After Kingdon retired she began to look for an art association that had interaction, she found the Chestermere Fine Art Guild and joined one year ago.
“As an artist, if you’re stuck in your house you’re not getting new ideas,” Kingdon said.
“I can see what other people are doing, the last few days have been interesting days and I thought, oh I don’t really want to go, but I knew that if I went it’s very uplifting, there’s a lot of comradery, a lot of talking. We just don’t talk art, we talk politics, and what’s happening with our families. It’s more of a family type feeling,” she said.
Although now Kingdon ensures she can come to the weekly Chestermere Fine Art Guild meetings, she has struggled with balancing her art, and family time in the past.
“When I was working I didn’t find the time, I would maybe do two pictures a year,” Kingdon said.
However, now Kingdon is able to dedicate the time her art deserves.
“For me with family, family will always come first, and sometimes I let it go too far.
“I feel as though art isn’t apricated as it should be, when a person goes out to buy art they might look at the price, not thinking about the work that went into something.
“It happens at home as well, grandmas in her art room, they come in and interrupt, and sometimes you have to have that concentration and that frame of mind to be able to focus on what needs to be done,” Kingdon said.
“It’s tough for people to understand that an artist needs the time to work, it isn’t like a job, but it should be like a job where you can focus.
“Right now, this is my job, trying to create art that people will like and will buy, and they can hang in their homes, that’s my job.
“It’s a hard switch to put your family a little bit on the back burner, so I make sure to get everything done in the morning, do my art, and then at 4 p.m. when everyone comes home they get my time,” she said.
Kingdon’s process of creating a beautiful landscape painting isn’t just finding a photo she likes and replicating it, all of her paintings are original.
“There’s a huge process, there’s a long period of time,” she said.
She begins her day by going through her reference book of photos that she took and decides what she wants to paint. Next, she will gather all of the material she needs and begin to paint.
“How long it takes me to paint depends on how many pictures I have going on at one time, I might have two or three going on at one time.
Then it comes down to oh my gosh, I now have five paintings that are really close to being done, that’s craziness,” she said.
After Kingdon is completed painting, the painting will get a protective coating, framed, wrapped with information on the back, and then wrapped in bubble wrap.
“Then I hope it gets where it needs to be in once piece,” she said.
Although now Kingdon has the opportunity to paint freely, she has battled with creative blocks in the past.
If Kingdon is feeling uninspired she will force herself to take an afternoon and go outside, go for a walk and find something to paint that excites her again.
“I would come home from work in the winter time, exhausted and plant myself in front of the tv. It’s a long way from sitting in front of the tv to saying, no I’m going out.”
However, once Kingdon created the habit of going out to find inspiration it became second nature to her, and something that she now needs to do.
Kingdon has already established herself as a viable local artist, however, what she is shooting for she hasn’t reached yet.
“The point is to have people, who aren’t my family, who aren’t my friends, buy my stuff and go, hey I would really like another picture.
“The point is to get my name out here, and I can’t do it with it sitting on my wall,” Kingdon said.
“I don’t do my art to keep,” she added.
When someone purchases a painting, she wants them to know that she depicted the picture in the best way she could.
Kingdon believes she wouldn’t be where she is today without the support from her husband, her family, and her friends.
“They would always say oh you’re so good, even when I was working.
They have been there behind me since day one encouraging me to keep going, they built up my self-confidence, and self-esteem, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of their love,” Kingdon said.
Currently Kingdon is working tirelessly to have her paintings ready for the Strathmore WSA Gallery from Oct. 21 until Nov. 17.
For more information about Chestermere artist Lin Kingdon, and to see her art work please visit her Website at https://linkingdon.wixsite.com/throughlinseyes.
