(Autumn Stillness, 36×48 watercolor on canvas by Linda Swindle)
Watercolorist Linda Swindle loves to paint animals. “Animals have a universal appeal,” she says. “I like them because I can give them personality.” Animal portraits, unlike human portraits, do not have to look exactly like the subject, she points out. “I can make them sad, funny or gruff.” In December, Swindle’s animals and other subjects are showcased at Red Chair Gallery.
How does she decide what to paint? “I take a ton of pictures on my phone,” she says. Then she scrolls through the hundreds of photos of animals and landscapes to plan her next composition. Sometimes the exotic animal photos come from the Internet but Swindle gives them their personality. She also plays with vibrant colors, creating purple pachyderms and blue bunnies. Her creatures are never drab.
Animals have been part of Swindle’s life since childhood. She grew up on a farm outside Albany, Oregon and raised her family on a 40-acre ranch in Powell Butte, where she and her husband still live. They used to run cattle and raise hay on their property but have cut back in retirement. Her lifelong experience with animals has given her a wonderful sense of the way they move and their expressions.
Over the more than two decades that Swindle has been a watercolor artist, she has experimented with new techniques to keep her work fresh. She usually paints on canvas and lately she has been applying texture to her work by using a product called watercolor ground. This roughs up the surface so that it can easily resemble animal fur or hair. Always known for her bright colors, Swindle is trying to make them even brighter and more unexpected. So the orange sheep with green eyes on a recent painting looks vivaciously normal.
Swindle paints mostly on canvas because the color stays more vibrant and doesn’t soak in like it does on paper. Also, she can extend the painting to the sides so that it doesn’t require a frame. An added bonus of using canvas is that if she doesn’t like the way she started a painting, she can wash it off in the shower and begin again.
For more than two decades, Swindle taught art to children and adults. That ceased during the COVID-19 pandemic. She hopes to resume teaching at her Powell Butte studio in 2023.
Besides being a longtime artist at Red Chair Gallery, Swindle also exhibits her work at The Gallery of Ten Oaks in McMinnville.