A good friend and neighbor, Jerome Lipetzky, motivated us with his wonderful and skilled landscapes. We finally began painting in 2010.
Tom signed up for oil painting lessons and Linda joined him, surprising herself by liking it. Linda has always loved photography but never drew or sketched as a kid – so the lesson learned is “Try it! One never knows…”
Tom is drawn to scenes that tell a story, whether it’s people, places or things and often incorporates humor.
Linda’s passion for animals and all things wild is the focus of her art (see ifnaturecouldtalk.com for her nature blog). However, recent passions include native landscapes and she continues to honor the black and white photos of her father’s by painting her oil renditions.
Some of our paintings are ‘en plein air’ – done outside in one major sitting, some are in a studio with live models, and some from photographs we take in our travels, hikes, trips to the beach, etc.
We continue to enter regional and local juried art shows — and have received awards at a number of art shows.
Linda’s oil paintings from her father’s photos was a featured artist show in 2016 at the Redlands Art Association – click here for details. She continues to sell paintings based on her father’s black and white photos taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
As you can see from our individual paintings of the same still life below, we have different styles, and that makes painting together even more joyful.
And in 2016 both of us were juried into the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs as gallery members, and is where we continue to show our art every year in changing exhibits.
— Linda Richards and Tom Gillett
