What's the purpose or goal of your work?

I am a visual storyteller. In all of my work, women are the dominant elements. My goal is not to idealize them in any way, but to portray each woman’s individuality, her power, her connection to other women and to the world. I usually paint the women I know, sometimes using them as models as they grow from adolescence into womanhood. The narratives often place together women and girls who have never met, in physical environments where they have never been. There is a dreamlike aspect to my paintings, a surreal confluence of elements that feels very real. 

How has your style changed over time?

My preferred mediums have changed over time, which has had an obvious influence on my style. My original background is in printmaking, but I have worked extensively in many art fields. Sculpture showed me how to render the figure in three dimensions. Printmaking led to my experimental work in monotypes, which was my favorite medium for a long time and the focus of my first solo exhibit in New York City, reviewed by John Russell in the NY Times. The monotypes were of figures in loosely painted interiors. When the rooms developed windows, my figures started dancing, leaping, and moving outside.

I first began to work pastels over the ghost images of the monotypes, then the pastels grew much larger. Once the scale of my work became problematic in that medium, I changed to oil paint on canvas and panels.

I always work in series, and each successive series emerges from the one before it. Regardless of medium or subject matter, everything that comes out of my studio has always been very recognizable as my personal vision and palette.

Is there a specific environment or material that's integral to your work?

I grew up in New England near the ocean, and I have always loved the sand dunes, the salt marshes, the ocean’s clear light, and the drama and movement of the sea. I am drawn to the sea when I travel, and photograph beaches, clouds, boats, people and islands wherever I go. Many of these photographs become resources that I turn to when I am composing a new painting. You can see snippets of islets off the coast of Costa Rica, rippled sand from Providenciales, beach cabanas from Chappaquiddick, stone walls from Sakonnet, and fishing boats from St. Lucia – sometimes all in the same work! This is how I set the scenes for my figures and narratives, bathed in that strong, lucid light.

How has your education helped you in your career?

I have always practiced art, but I do not have a lot of formal training or a fine art degree. My degree was actually in psychology, which has had a profound visual and narrative effect on my painting of the figure, relationships, and environments. Although I am not a classically trained artist, my skills in rendering the figure were hard-earned through practice. I think I spent ten years just becoming adept at drawing hands! It’s my personal philosophy that the long process of discovery in being self-taught leads to a unique form of expression – my work really doesn’t look like anyone else’s. 

Has the press or media ever mentioned your artwork? What have critics and collectors said about your work?

Selected reviews:

Danforth Museum of Art juried exhibition reviewed by Brian Goslow, Editor of Artscope Magazine:

"My favorite work in the exhibition was Linda Post’s “The Willing Suspension of Disbelief”, a large 72” x 53” oil on linen canvas painting, truly enhanced by its huge size, that fully allows one to see features that wouldn’t have been apparent looking at a digital image. Not only do you feel the intense presence of two women leaning against an aging fence - one holding a seagull while a second gull, it’s open beak seemingly smiling as its red eye looks out at the viewer - but four tents, the event they’ve been raised for unapparent. Post said that the "surreal, shape-shifting tents" are one of the dreamlike places that occur often in her work... In the back of the painting a couple sits around a campfire, their attention alternating between each other and the rising moon. "When I began this painting, it was a sunset. By the end it was a moonrise," says Post. "Things change." The Danforth's annual juried show will always leave me with several artists whose work I will be following for years to come."

Solo exhibit at Mary Ryan Gallery by John Russell, New York Times:

“Linda Post’s monotypes have to do with unself-conscious domesticities. The people in them loll around the house, looking pleasantly juicy, and are clearly as much at home with the artist as they are with each other.”

Solo exhibit at R. Michelson Galleries by Gloria Russell, Springfield Sunday Republican:

“The overall beauty in Post’s paintings comes from her loose, confident drawing and firmly structured composition. Yet the overwhelming sensation is one of vibrant color; color is luscious and downright uninhibited. We respond to it with the same joy the artist must feel as she works with such a palette. There is an enigmatic quality in Post’s work that emerges from the counterpoint of visual appeal and psychological detachment. We wonder what it all means; how, at the same time, we can be so close and so far apart.”

Solo exhibits at the Wisteriahurst Museum and R. Michelson Galleries by Patricia Wright, Hampshire Gazette:

Post works in pastel, in large formats, and with her fingers as much as the stick. She can swirl the surface of the Connecticut River as elegantly as Florentine paper, the colors marbling and mixing in and over and around and through the swimming figures under her hands. Looking at them, at the rich, warped surface of the paper, at color so intense it’s almost tactile, I felt my fingers tremble, and I felt myself smiling.”

Collectors say:

Ann Sibbald, New York City: “My collection contains three major pieces by Linda Post. The artistry and emotional intensity of her work is so vivid. I find these paintings as extraordinary and compelling today as the first day I brought them home.”  

Peggy and Stuart Schneider, New Jersey: "The painting arrived yesterday afternoon. I carefully opened it and was delighted. We have been rearranging artwork on our walls, trying to decide where to place it. It brings me joy whenever I look at it, and for that I am grateful."

Describe a piece of art you are most proud of. Why?

I completed a series of large-scale soft pastel paintings some years ago titled “The Elements”. Each one is 50” x 42” on Stonehenge paper. It was an ambitious project. Every variation is a self-portrait: Earth, Air, Water and Fire. I infused my face and body with the theme, immersing myself in each element. All but one are now in private collections – I kept Earth for myself.