Linda Le Kinff

Linda Le Kinff was born in Paris from French and Brazilian parents. She started her career as a painter at the age of 20. In the 1970s she traveled to India, Tibet, Mexico and Italy. She lived and worked in Italy for twelve years learning ancient techniques: tempura, egg painting and the gold leaf method taught by masters in Florence and Livorno. She also served an apprenticeship in wood engraving, copper engraving, as well as learning the modern techniques of acrylic and airbrushing.

In Paris, in 1975 she learned lithography; meeting the artists Brayer, Corneille and Lapique. In 1976 she met Okamoto Taro, the Japanese Picasso, who introduced her to sand and sumi technique. In 1981 she spent six months in Morocco where she worked with Chabia, the poetess of the naïve abstraction movement.

She returned to school in south Tyrol, where she became interested in painted, polished and varnished woodwork, using a special material made of casein. She applied it to her painting but still kept the classic expression on canvas.

Le Kinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixing of greasy pastels, ink and watercolors. Just recently she began to use collage. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travel, dreams, reading and imagination. Her influences include the secret sensuality of Braque, the drawing of Matisse, the elegance of Modigliani and the maturity of Egon Schiele, who died at the age of 28.

Linda Le Kinff has exhibited widely in Europe, Australia and Japan.