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
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
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
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
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.
Public Art
2016 Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Rohnert Park 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