Linda Le Kinff
b. 1949

Le Kinff lived and worked in Italy for twelve 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.


In Paris in 1975 she learned lithography, meeting the artists, Brayer, Corneille and Lapique. 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. She returned to school in south Tyrol where she 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 but still keeps the traditional approach of painting in acrylic on canvas, as well. She began to create original serigraphs in the mid 1980`s and uses this technique exclusively in the creation of her original graphic works. She also creates hand-embellished versions of her serigraphs on canvas and wood, and spends countless hours re-visiting each example to extract new artistic possibilities from every individual image.


Le Kinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixing of greasy pastels, ink and watercolor. Recently she began to use collage. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travel, her dreams, reading and her imagination. Her subjects are extremely diverse, and include musical scenes, poetic interpretations of people caught in an intimate moment of their lives, and couples elegantly dressed, out for a night on the town. Her influences include the hidden sensuality of Braque, the masterful drawing of Matisse, the elegance of Modigliani and the precocious maturity of Egon Schiele who died at the age of 28.


In 1998, Le Kinff was selected as the official World Cup Artist. For that distinction, she created a painting that was minted into a commemorative coin by the French Government, an honor never before offered to a living French artist. In 2002
Le Kinff participated in the "Exposition of Prestige" organized by the Ambassador of France in Japan and her work was exhibited in museums and art foundations in Japanese cities including: Tokyo-Bunkamura Museum; Nagoya-Tenjin Salaria Art Foundation; Osaka-Kirin Foundation; Fukuoka-Loft Gallery; Yokohama-RedBrick-Warehouse.


Recent Museum acquisitions include: Jeju Island, Korea; Moulin de Villedoin Velles, France; La Maison de Van Gogh, Auvers sur Oise, France; Musee de Montmartre, Paris, France.


In 2005, Linda Le Kinff participated in the following group shows in France: Salon Violet; Salon d'autumn; Salon des Artistes Francais; Salon des Beaux Arts; Salon Comparaison.