Linda Grebmeier
linda@paintsong.com

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Artist Info

Linda was raised in  California, completed her MA degree at Central Washington University, studied with Cynthia Krieble and George Stillman 

Statement

Painting is the language I use to explore my intuitive attraction to light, space and color.

After completing my graduate work, I left the expansive horse country of Eastern WA returning to the Northern CA Bay Area where I began the Battles series using the horse as a personal and global subject. I appropriated Rubens and Delacroix artworks for their rhythmic compositions to explore my paint handling. Additionally, I painted natural Landscapes in WA, OR and CA with spatial distant views.

The complexity of the Benicia industrial waterfront challenged me to paint urban landscapes. The Arsenal, Cargo Ships and Industrial Prints series evolved from living in a studio surrounded by transport vehicles and bridges. Light formed angles of shadows across sides of immense ships or between warehouse walkways. 

The Yuba Site series was inspired by the 1850s Yuba Factory in Benicia where sharp light radiated through decayed roofs illuminating detritus left behind by workers. It had housed repair space for paddlewheel steamers, gold dredging machines and howitzer guns, until finally the space became artists’ studios and then was demolished.

In the recent Play-Things series I’m observing still lifes of toys and objects. At times intense light creates shadow-shapes that have their own physical presence, and dialogues occur between figurines or even between the shadows themselves.

In Encaustics I paint with hot wax or with paper collages embedded in wax. Ideas evolve as a collage is composed but can change drastically once the process begins. Surfaces are gouged out, scraped and burnt to develop the work; and sometimes the images are surreal or homages to historical artists.

The unique fluidity of either hot wax, oils or inks guide my exploration from subject to image. By working in Series and observing variations, I discover my personal intentions and clarify formal concerns.

News

2024 – my working process with encaustic painting and collage featured in EA magazine December issue.

Winter 2024 issue Encaustic Arts Magazine

Encaustic Art Institute, 18 County Road 55A, Cerrillos NM 87010, (505) 424-6487

eainm.com/encaustic-arts-magazine

2024-25 – my encaustic collage Rembrandt 1 in the online exhibit Fresh Art 2024

Exhibition dates: December 16 – February 15 2025 online only
shows14.wixsite.com/mysite/fresh-art-2024
youtube.com/watch?v=kigOSqueH7M

Reception via Zoom, Sunday December 22 at 5:00 pm PST
us06web.zoom.us/j/89012361520?pwd=LgOolQRCWQcb48gBBax0Ej1bExRAo1.1
(passcode if requested is MSA)

Marin Society of Artists, 1515 3rd Street, San Rafael CA 94903, (415) 454-9561

2024 – my encaustics Memory Horn & Mirror Lake exhibited in Art as Poetry / Poetry as Art, 10 Artists and 10 Poets. Poetry written in response to each artwork displayed alongside the art.

Poem in response to Memory Horn
Poem in response to Mirror Lake

Exhibition dates:  October 4 – 27
Friday October 4 from 5:00–7:00pm • Reception + Poetry Reading

Cobalt Gallery, 430 N Main Street, Fort Bragg CA 95437
Hours: Thursday-Sunday from 1:00-5:00pm, (707) 472-6421

instagram.com/cobaltgallerydtfb
facebook.com/cobaltgallery

2024 – my encaustic collage Rembrandt 1 in the online show
Near & Far Encaustic Exhibition, inaugural to the Canadian Encaustic Conference 2025

Exhibition dates:  September 1 – 30  online only

encausticconference.ca/exhibitions/near-and-far

2024 – my painting Arsenal 140 auctioned during the Lincoln in Benicia benefit hosted by 1000 Friends Protecting Historic Benicia

April 19 from 6:00–9:00pm, Benicia Clocktower, 11189 Washington Street, Benicia CA 94510

1000friendsphb.org

2023 – my encaustic Wasteland now part of the museum’s permanent collection after the exhibit Global Warming is Real, 7th Annual

Museum of Encaustic Art, 18 County Road 55A, Cerrillos NM 87010
Hours: Friday–Sunday from 11:00–4:00pm, (505) 424-6487

eainm.com/permanent-collection-linda-grebmeier

2022 – my monotype Fire Clouds graced the cover of A Companion to American Poetry. Published by Wiley Blackwell, April 2022. Editors: Mary Mcaleer Balkun, Jeffrey Gray, Paul Jaussen.

A Companion to American Poetry brings together original essays by both established scholars and emerging critical voices to explore the latest topics and debates in American poetry and its study. 

wiley.com/en-us/A+Companion+to+American+Poetry-p-9781119669227
amazon.com/Companion-American-Blackwell-Companions-Literature/dp/1119669685

2015 – both exhibition & book titled Why Make Art, Twenty-Five Benicia Artists Respond

Desuyo Project … Artists respond to the question Why Make Art?

Book includes artists responses with their artwork and
portraits of the artists by photographer Hedi. B. Desuyo.

blurb.com/b/6215873-why-make-art

Public Art


2016 Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Rohnert Park CA
2012 Public Health Clinic, Solano County Public Art, Vacaville CA
2012 Santa Rosa Junior College, The Doyle Collection, Santa Rosa CA
2010 Solano County Events Center, Solano County Public Art, Fairfield CA
2010 Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Hospital Art Collection, Vallejo CA
2009 City of Richmond Art Collection, Richmond CA
2008 Benicia Historical Museum, Silas Casey Building, Benicia CA

Comments

Your capturing of light always amazes me. I feel like I can tell the time of day; the stillness or wind in the air. There’s something about it that frees my senses and my imagination.
–– Barbara Intersimone CA

She takes what would be the most mundane topic or detail and turns it into this rich visual experience.
–– Anne Toxey, Toxey/McMillan Design Associates TX

Poetic and almost audible landscapes draw the viewer in, as the late afternoon light softens the grit and rust.
– Dolby Chadwick Gallery CA

Since moving to the Benicia Arsenal 19 years ago, Grebmeier has interpreted the industrial environment surrounding her studio in striking paintings and prints suffused with golden light and deep shadows, profoundly expressive of her connection to the area. Her use of unexpected vantage points results in atmospheric, light-filled images bordering on abstraction.
– Kathryn Weller-Renfrow CA

Benicia’s Arsenal may appear to casual visitors to be a jumble of buildings, some forlorn, others restored. But Benicia artist Linda Grebmeier knows how to transform them with heightened color and geometric form in the golden light of a setting sun.
– Robert Taylor, Contra Costa Times CA