Lin Hampton

Artist Statement

I use a contemporary and distinctive brushstroke to render a traditional genre, with the medium of oil on canvas or wood panel, or pastel on board. My work has developed over the years into a very distinctive process and “signature”.

What inspires me to attack a particular landscape or figure and cajole it into two dimensions frequently comes from the “spirit” of the subject. When an area of a painting bores me or embodies a symbol or seems trite and common, I mix it up by playing with little hidden images and my unique “marks”.  

Frequently, I carry a scene or a composition inside of my head for months, sometimes years.  When the time becomes available to physically paint, the magic begins. Creating is a Time Machine. Time falls away, my senses are altered, and it seems the piece paints itself.  There is no need in this place, no hunger, no fatigue, no pain, and no awareness of time.  From somewhere inside, questions of color, composition and value are already resolved.

Painting is a voracious appetite in and of itself.  I find myself physically and emotionally charged after completing a work that I have carried in my mind.  There is an empty place, and the cycle begins again as I select my next subject. Recent personal Life changing events have fueled new ideas and new directions. Life and Creativity continues, sometimes without the ones we love.

To select a subject, I must be deeply involved with it. Generally there is a sensory value or a feeling attached to that subject.  My hope is to capture that sensory and visual impression two dimensionally, then transfer or share it with you, the viewer. Add the aspect of time and longevity of image, then if I succeed in this transfer, I have touched you, or someone in the future.  We do not know one another, but this event connects us.