artist's statement
Linda Hudgins
Over ten years ago I left my studio to teach art for three years in Botswana, Southern Africa.
Four years later I was teaching art in Shenzhen, P R China. After three years in China, I
returned to this area to resume work in my studio full time.
Finished with teaching, I am profoundly satisfied to be able to go into my studio and produce
art with a new appreciation for the expression of the human soul and spirit that speaks both to
the artist and the viewer. I know to be responsible to the act of creation when I work and I
experience with fascination the presentation of that nonverbal voice of the visual artist. Refusing
to start with imagery in mind and allowing each moment to influence what happens on the surface
I love watching what occurs on the canvas.
What I create is derived from intuitive color and shape responses to the working
surfaces. I am also discovering that imagery from other countries where I have lived shows up in
the work greatly modified by its presence here. Direct responses to my natural environment
influence the painting as well.
As I follow the lead of the painting in progress, totally immersed in the task of mixing and
applying color, I become accustomed to the new form as it emerges. I have noticed, however,
that when I turn away to more familiar surroundings and turn back to my work that I am struck
with the strangeness of it. This lasts only for a moment. If I am attentive the form again asserts
itself as a thing evolved from nature. I love the surprises that come with this approach and ask
the viewer to spend a moment to allow the unfamiliar to give up its strangeness.
I work with oils and acrylics and draw with mixed media and on occasion I experiment with
other materials and processes.
Linda Hudgins lindahudginsart@gmail.com
