Linda Le Kinff

Linda Le Kinff was born in Paris in 1949 to French and Brazilian parents. She started her career as a painter at the age of 20.

In the 1970s she traveled to India, Tibet, Mexico and Italy. She lived and worked in Italy for 12 years learning the ancient techniques of tempera, egg painting and the gold leaf method taught by masters in Florence and Livorno. She also served an apprenticeship in wood engraving, copper engraving, and excelled in learning the modern techniques of acrylic and airbrush painting. Painting on wood paneling became one of her favorite media. Italy is the place where she truly found herself as a painter and her memories from that time are especially fond.

In Paris, 1975, Le Kinff learned lithography. In 1976, she met Okamoto Taro, the “Japanese Picasso,” who introduced her to the sand and sumi technique. In 1981, she spent six months in Morocco where she worked with Chabia, the poetess of the naive abstraction movement.

Eventually Le Kinff became interested in painted, polished and varnished woodwork, using a special material made of casein. She applied it to her paintings and continues to use this technique today – while also keeping the traditional approach of painting acrylic on canvas, as well. She began to create serigraphs in the mid-1980s and excels in the technique.

Mastery in all these techniques is very impressive, yet she also expresses herself through watercolors – or more precisely – a mixing of greasy pastels, ink and watercolor. She works without a model, and her inspiration comes from travels, her dreams, reading, and her imagination. Her color palette has been inspired by Japan and the Scandinavian countries, with each location having its own representation of color.

When it comes to choosing her favorite artistic techniques, she explains that each technique and medium depends greatly on her subject matter.