Upper Lake >> Still life was never enough for Linda Becker. Inanimate objects left her feeling cold. And when she began painting living, breathing subjects, that was the beginning of the end. “I doubt there’s any going back for me, because there’s so much more inspiration in it,” said the Lake County Wine Studio featured artist of the month.
A lifelong art lover, Becker didn’t actually begin to purse it regularly until her four children were old enough for her to divert some attention from parenting. 20 years ago, she signed up for art and computer classes at Mendocino College, which she took for a number of years. After those college courses, she continued her instruction closer to the lake, learning under the tutelage of a local artist who’d moved here from Texas.
And despite Becker’s preferences, much of that time was spent painting still lifes.
It wasn’t until five years ago that she finally turned to her favorite subjects — endangered animals, wildlife and landscapes — after meeting a woman who worked for Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. She allowed Becker to paint from pictures she’d taken of the theme park’s animals.
Through that contact, Becker became friends with a man with the Sacramento Zoo. He, too, gave her permission to create her own artwork from his photographs. That was when she truly began to fall in love with painting — when she found what she’d been missing in still life.
“I love animals so much,” Becker said. “Whenever I’m painting an animal I almost feel like that animal is right here in front of me and I can reach out and touch it.”
Although four-legged and wings creatures seem to feature predominately in her work, Becker also paints the natural world. Trees and flowers, grasses and lakes, those are alive as well, just in a different way from the animals at the Sacramento Zoo. A friend of Ron Keas, a well-known Lake County photographer, Becker references his images of the scenic landscape to create paintings of the place she calls home.
But while the subjects may have changed, one thing has remained constant since the beginning — Becker’s detail oriented, photo realistic style. Even when she was doing still lifes, she was about as far from abstract as an artist could get. She loves detail too much for anything resembling impressionism.
If you don’t look too closely, you could easily mistake Becker’s paintings for real photographs. Thousands of individual hairs make up the fur of a fox, every feather on a bald eagle’s head is defined, a white tiger’s whiskers and spots are painstakingly rendered. Birds are her favorite animal to paint, due to the intricacies involved in creating their feathers.
With all her paintings, Becker immerses herself in her subject, visualizing what it would be like to reach out and run her fingers through an animal’s fur. “You almost have to put yourself into that painting and feel it, otherwise it’s not going to have the life and realism to it that it should have,” she explained.
She doesn’t time herself, but Becker can’t finish a piece in any less than six to eight weeks. Armed with a good pair of glasses, a magnifying glass and a light, she works for at least two hours a day. But she doesn’t push herself too hard. If she feels like her heart isn’t in it, she takes a break.
Despite her impressively detailed work, Becker doesn’t consider herself a professional artist. Painting is a hobby, she said, and her show at the Lake County Wine Studio, which opens today, is her first solo exhibition.
She’s displayed her with other artists, but never alone. When Susan Feiler, wine studio proprietor, asked Becker to fill in for another artist who couldn’t make it, Becker only selected a handful of pieces to hang on the walls. Only when Feiler told her to bring as much work as she wanted did Becker choose the 50 paintings and prints that will be on view and available for purchase at the wine studio during the month of May.
But even if she doesn’t call herself a professional, she does take commissions. While pets and landscapes are some of her favorite subjects to tackle, and she leans away from human portraits, she’s open to creating a variety of work. Anyone interested in commissioning a painting from Becker can contact her at 277-0275.
There will be an art and wine reception from 5-8 p.m. today and from 4-7 p.m. Saturday at the Lake County Wine Studio, 9505 Main St., Upper Lake.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
