My Story
Hi! I am Linda Ross Gallagher BFA, SCA, a contemporary Canadian painter in oil, acrylic and water-colour, based in Ontario, Canada.
Perhaps during your childhood you had the opportunity to explore the outdoors? As a child immersed in nature in the Saguenay Region of Quebec, I spent hours wandering forest trails down to the river, collecting and pressing wildflowers and playing in a frog pond with the family canoe. I recorded these things in watercolour — a habit introduced by a family friend.
Working alongside Western landscape painters in the 90’s at various visiting artist programs fostered a deep passion for plein air painting (painting outdoors on location), which is the foundation of my work today.
My work invites you to accompany me on these adventures, to “see” Nature through all your senses, to reconnect and feel deeply.
“Deep Blue Swamp”
Painting from life has been my way to truly see. It’s a spontaneous diary through all the senses: the feeling of breezes and summer sun, the buzzing of insects; the exhilaration of feet and fingers tingling with cold in mid winter as a plein air painting is completed. Colours develop before my eyes that cannot be captured on film or noticed in the hurry scurry of life. Somehow, subconsciously, all this makes its way into my painting and eventually into studio work.
At age 8, I was privileged to watch over the shoulder of a visiting artist from New York City as he painted. I knew I was hooked when we did one together.
At 10, my evening art teacher, Tony Akkerman, showed me his “real” transparent watercolours and stretched linen rag papers. To his wife, he simply said, “She’s worth it!” Those three little words propelled me forward and still carry a lot of weight.
Plaster cast and my studio at Mount Allison University revisited, 2008.
Growing up in a community of engineers, chemists and geologists with a science-heavy high school program, I was very hungry to learn about art. Mount Allison University in New Brunswick provided a hands on, practical fine arts program along with scholarships that funded my BFA (1973). This gave me a solid grounding in classical drawing and painting, for which I am extremely grateful.
Although my first love is Nature, many family moves across the continent over the last 50 years have encompassed a vast array of experiences and subjects, from buzzing metropolis of the East and West Coasts of North America and everything in between: Big Sky on the prairie … closed in forests of the East …. reflection of light in glass architecture …. the interactions of people in urban circumstances …. to hobby farming.
Currently I am involved with the Fine Arts Society of Milton; Credit Valley Artisans in Georgetown; the Oakville Arts Society; and Norval Studios & Gallery in Norval, Ontario. I recently become an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists.
When I am not painting, you may find me feeding chickens, hiking with my husband on the Escarpment or practising Sunday’s hymns on the piano.
Municipal collection
Private collection.
I invite you to join me in feeling deep connections, peace and sanctuary through my art.
“Dancing Trees”
“I feel very much at home with it. It is just me. We are kindred spirits in nature. I really love that one.”
Annalee —Bothwell
“Clarity … it is and it isn’t like a photograph, because there’s a feeling about it; there’s a mystery about it. They make me feel I’m glad I bought them. These are part of my refuge. The ‘York & Adelaide’ painting is totally different from the others. I can’t say why I like it, but I really, really LOVE it. There’s something about the city that grabs me.”
Brian — Toronto
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