Linda Foy IS AN ARTIST LIVING AND WORKING IN MONTANA

Artist Statement

My paintings tell a story of the American west. This vast landscape’s transitory moments and illusory states are a source of inspiration and exchange; a conversation that urges me to translate ephemeral moments and natural phenomena into pictures.

I begin my art process by taking photographs during my wanderings, from the river bottoms to the clouds on the high plains. The ones I choose for my paintings are those that I believe can be transformed from the natural into the supernatural, from the worldly to the otherworldly. 

My studio process incorporates metallic leaf on wood panels, aluminum panels, or canvas. I use multiple glazes of transparent oil paints in bold hues, to enhance depth and luminosity. I explore new mediums and substrates to best evoke a sense of this place and its staggering beauty.

In 2023, I began a series of interpretations of maps of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, including its geology, hydrology, and animal migration routes. Maps produced by the USGS and the Wyoming Migration Initiative serve as my inspiration. This new series expands my knowledge of the underlying and unseen web of nature that surrounds us.

I humbly approach my work with the wish that viewers will be awakened to appreciate that which is astonishingly elusive: an earth memory, resonating from within, inspiring us to protect our wild and precious earth.


Bio

Linda Foy grew up in Miami during the age of disco and Castro. Despite these disparate and urban origins, nature and color have shaped her art.

She attended Berklee College of Music for two years, followed by a change in artistic focus, culminating in graduation from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in the practice of art. Her most venerated instructors were Joan Brown and Elmer Bischoff, both of the Bay Area Figurative Art School. Under their benevolent guidance, she found acceptance and encouragement for her source material as well as her style, characterized by immediacy and warmth. Her love of the land, sky, and animals has shaped her work. Her paintings are intuitive and distinguished by her use of luminous color.

She moved to Twin Bridges, Montana in 1993, where she still resides today. She has worked as a fly fishing guide, caretaker, and chef to support her painting practice. In late 2020, she opened a working studio and small gallery on Main Street in Twin Bridges.

In mid-2022, she was awarded an American Rescue Plan Act Funding grant (ARPA) from the Montana Arts Council for a project consisting of 4 large (72” x 48”) landscape and nature paintings to reflect the four seasons of Montana.

In 2023, this series of paintings (The Four Seasons: From the River Bottom to the Clouds Above) was exhibited as a slide show to accompany a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, featuring young musicians supported by Baroque Music Montana. In July 2023, Baroque Music Montana (violin, harpsichord, and cello) performed a concert of Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 5 in her atelier.

Her newest project is a collaborative and multi-sensory experience inspired by maps of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Implementing cartographical information from the USGS and the Wyoming Migration Initiative as a basis for paintings, along with music, sounds found in nature, sculpture, photography and film. Through this project she wishes to represent the beauty and mystery in this landscape; to educate and inspire viewers to protect this precious and wild place.