Perhaps it was the time she spent teaching art in southern Africa. Or maybe it was what she
learned while living in rural China. Wherever the inspiration may lie, Linda Hudgins has
discovered a universal language of form, composition and color.
Her unpremeditated approach to painting energizes the eye. Earth tones and natural shapes
populate Hudgins’ canvasses, but in fields of color and volumes of energy that transcend
everyday experience. The forms she paints in oil, acrylic, or mixed media, imply the images of
nature: cloud formations at sunrise, or maybe a forest during autumn. But her non-figurative
gestures invite us to imagine what nature may have had in mind while creating its dynamic
forms.
A native of South Carolina, Hudgins studied art at Converse College and later at the Rhode
Island School of Design. A lifelong commitment to artistic exploration has taken her to such
exotic climes as Ghana, Botswana and China, where she reeducated her vision in local terms
to see the world anew.
The uniqueness of Hudgins’ style is evident in her brushstroke, spontaneous gestures that
invite us to consider the pre-verbal and non-conceptual levels of experience. The images are
familiar; perhaps we’ve seen these forms before in our dreams or childhood fantasies. Or
maybe this is how the mind encounters the world before reason has its say. Clearly, this is the
visual language of the unconscious, the vocabulary of intuition and emotion, as opposed to
rational analysis.
But it is the choice of color that enables Hudgins to make her most powerful statements.
Saturated hues and occasionally dissonant tones elevate common things to the highest levels
of imagination. “My most delighted moments occur when I can observe my surroundings as
pure arrangements of color,” says Hudgins.
These unusual arrangements of elements and design show a search for balance between
conflict and resolution, dissonance and harmony. Their emotionally charged shapes and
provocatively colored images suggest that repose is always transient; metamorphosis is the
norm both in nature and consciousness.
“Abstract Surrealism” might be a way to describe the recent work of Linda Hudgins, if indeed
labels are even appropriate. Whether we choose any labels at all, these paintings speak to the
perennial growth and persistent renewal of nature and the soul.
Dr. Mark Packer
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Art History
University of South Carolina, Upstate
| LINDA HUDGINS |
ABOUT THE ARTIST
