#yycLCL March 2021

A watercolour painting of landscape alongside tools of the trade
Linnea Martina's artwork on Instagram | Photo: Linnea Martina

#yycLCL March 2021

Love for the unspoken words of nature is captured through her paintings

I am a born and raised Calgarian, now living on the outskirts of Calgary. I’ve completed a Bachelor of Fine Art majoring in jewellery and metalsmithing at the Alberta College of Art + Design (now known as the Alberta University of the Arts). I am now painting with my work being in the form of contemporary landscapes and snapshot details of nature. Using Canada’s vast mountains and never-ending prairie to give me inspiration; “Love for the unspoken words of nature.” 

My intention is to spark personal recollections in the viewer. I use the unique attributes of watercolour on canvas to my advantage. Moving pigments that are suspended, extracting pigment, manipulating by creating the smallest of marks. Creating layers of transparent colour, playing on depth with slight transitions, adds complexity and mystery within the surface leaving layers of translucent history.

I see these layers as a metaphor for life; the pigmented puddles are the quiet moments of rest, absorbing over time. The conjunction between nature and the layers we create from memories, dreams and reflections. Some unseen solid layers, some so tiny they are only revealed upon close investigation and some layers being seen right through to the first brush stroke.

Lately, I am loving the process of making my own watercolour medium, and ink and struggling to get the perfect recipe down of making a soft pastel. I’m finding returning to the slow process is a meditative studio practice that I am embracing. Getting colours straight from nature intern recreating with nature, an artist and pigment forager.

A closeup shot of one of Linnea Martina's watercolour paintings
With watercolour on canvas, if you take a close up snapshot of a section it leaves the memory of the surface, reminiscent of embroidery, revealing secrets of the sub-straight | Photo: Linnea Martina

My current work can be seen at the new (opened during COVID) Aqui Arts in Marda Loop, I have also been accepted into the 19th Annual Juried Members Show at the Leighton Centre, and working on a group project that Loft 112 organized and are curating called Cadavre Exquis that will show at The Boxed Stories Galley. My new outlook on my arts practice is to do all that is new and unknown and see where it leads!

Invite originality into your world… find art that resonates with you.

Details of some of the stages in the making of watercolour medium | Photos: Linnea Martina

A Canadian visual artist, Alberta’s vast mountains and never-ending prairie give Linnea Martina inspiration. See more of her work at artworkarchive.com and give her a follow on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.


Share your images! Show us how you live a creative life by tagging your Instagram snapshots with #yycLCL.