Linda Fries

Linda Fries, a San Francisco artist, has been painting professionally for many years.  She has found her voice in both abstraction and landscape.  For the majority of her career she has painted with oil on canvas.  But for 15 years she took a detour to do art work made entirely with natural ground earth pigments, creating a unique body of work that showcases the beauty and diversity of the natural local colors of the Bay Area.  Over the years she has shown her work in a variety of settings including a solo show at the Thoreau Gallery and at many other galleries and shows throughout the bay Area.  For over 28 years she has maintained her studio at Hunters Point Shipyard and participated in Open Studios.  Linda Fries' paintings are in private collections across the country.

A note on  the Earth Pigment Paintings:

For fifteen years I worked in an entirely new direction. In 1995, I abandoned my indoor studio art practice, ceased using most conventional materials, and began to search for new ways of making art that would be more compatible with the natural world. For four years I worked entirely outdoors in wild places under open skies, using only simple, earth-based materials: sumi ink from burnt pine bark and earth-wise, recycled or handmade papers. Immersed daily in the natural world, I found that a new perspective emerged. Themes in nature informed my images and the colors of the earth called to me. Eventually, the passion for true local color took over.

I began incorporating into my paintings the very ground on which I sat. In my earth pigment work, I used only natural materials, which I collected and prepared myself. The themes for the abstract earth pigment paintings are drawn from years of working outside in wild places. My passion for wilderness, light, air, mountains, trees, rocks, the flow of water, the wind, and patterns in nature are channeled into forms of abstraction and clothed in the vibrant colors of the earth. In addition to painting, I served on the Board of Directors of WEAD: Women Environmental Artists Directory for 10 years and I lectured and gave workshops on the environment and the arts.

If you are interested in seeing more Earth Pigment paintings please go to my website: lindafriesart.com.