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Using a variety of media including encaustic,
oil, and gouache, Linda LaFontsee conveys
the dance of life with an organic freedom
independent of representation. Through
layering, line and color, her paintings build
upon the structure of pattern in a push and
pull of what to keep and what to paint over or
scrape away. She chooses natural materials,
responding to the fleshy quality of encaustic, its
smell, color, texture, and the challenge and
pleasure of working with it. With pattern as a
foundation, she tones, varnishes, burns, molds,
melts, and scratches into the surface of her
paintings until a fluid repetition emerges.
Repetition is a recurrent inspiration in LaFontsee’s
work. History appeals to her. She is attracted to
layers of peeling paint, the configuration of
bricks, and natural outgrowths such as the rings
of trees or the scattered tones of pebbles. Like
life under a microscope, her paintings appear
alive, in flux, primordial and eternal. There is
a musical essence to the way in which her
paintings move, undulating in subtle organic
motion. Viewers are enticed to slow down,
touch and smell the paintings, to take pleasure
in their tactile nature and meditative quality of
seductive calm.
Artist Statement
“Everything in life inspires me, not quite with
direct interpretation, but as I see and
experience faces, words, gestures, colors and
shapes – all of it – I am always looking and
reacting to the energy around me. All of this gets
channeled and flows from brain to arm, hitting
white board with that first wonderful stroke of
vibrant color, and continues with adding and
subtracting, stripping down to the most essential.
I am in love with the eloquence of sparseness
and everything to do with the act of painting:
the smell, the lushness of oil paint, color."
"There is unmitigated spontaneity driven by
emotive forces, reacting intuitively, chance
and choice. The works are not meant to be
narrative, but visual explorations. Titles are
personal associations. I strive to work with a
straightforward painter’s vocabulary. My
methods of line and stroke are deliberate,
intuitively unidentified. I don’t labor over works.
If they start to trouble me, they need to be
set aside while I move on to the next piece.
This keeps several pieces in process and the
momentum keeps ideas clear. Logic and
intuition are always shifting and struggling
between what will be viewed and holding
onto my pure intention.”
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