Linton Vedrene

Artist Statement




I believe that memory is more powerful than reality.


Remembering a place or an event is often a stronger experience for me than being there. As an artist, one of my goals is to get that kind of a feeling in a painting. I do that in a variety of ways. I think that it’s very hard to recall details of how things look so I often simplify my paintings. Having a fascination with architecture, especially the art nouveau and art deco periods, I rely on a kind of precise line when composing a painting. Strong shadows are very important to the way I paint and that’s no accident either. I’m a big fan of noir comics. Also, I lived for many years in the southwest, where the light falls hard and shadows are very distinct. There is always a striking change of value in my work. Usually I work on cotton canvas, but, on occasion I paint on wood board. My favorite medium is oil pastel and I use it a lot. More often than not I will finish a painting began in acrylic with oil pastel. The exception would be the occasional painting done in oil.


Since 2004 I have focused on the western landscape. My paintings from this period do not have any people in them. They are rooted in memories I have from family trips that we took west when I was a child. Currently though, I am shifting to the peoples of the west, past and present, especially the cowboy. I am strictly avoiding the Hollywoodien archetype that one usually thinks of and focusing on the cowboys who have been forgotten from American history. They are more compelling subjects to me, and reflect more accurately our conflicted national past and our colorful present.





Linton julien vedrene

Linton Vedrene’s planar landscapes arrest the focus of passers-by, and will reward the attention of new as well as veteran collectors. “His paintings reflect the purity and raw color of the American desert”, that is how David Heywood, curator at Neleh gallery, contributing art writer to N’Digo newspaper and a seasoned collector, reacts to the work of self-taught artist Linton Vedrene.
Linton Vedrene is an artist living in the Chicago land area. While Vedrene has created culinary art throughout most of his adult life as a professional chef, it was not until 2000, while helping a friend execute a large scale mural that he began to give proper time and weight to his own efforts in the visual arts. He studied for a brief time under the tutelage of area artist Dalton Brown.
In a fairly short period of time, Vedrene has been establishing himself as a painter who is serious about conveying the beauty and power of the southwestern United States. By working primarily in a fairly underused media and using a style that employs strong visual language, Vedrene has recast both land and sky in a mold that is both monumental and unforgettable. At the core of his work is the power of memory and its transmutation into myth as he draws on the serenity and mystery of road trips across the American countryside.
“The creative process for me is definitely tied to memory because I am constantly pursuing feelings that I had at very specific places that I have been. I remember the first time that a saw a dust devil…looking out over a mesa on the Navajo/Hopi reservation…all that movement, violence even, with no sound to be heard. The isolation that I felt! A lot of my works focus on what memory of a place will become given distance and time. How will something feel/look through the lens of what we recall?”