Linda Schwab is a painter, living in Leeds. She is a graduate of the University of Central Lancashire has a MFA in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art.
With early success as a prizewinner in the Northern Young Contemporaries, Linda Schwab was followed by a varied career as a portrait artist, illustrator, teacher, and public artist. She has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe and her work is held in private and public collections.
The source material for all the works is photographic, consisting of Schwab’s own photographs of places and scenes, as well as found imagery of people. The initial found photo is distanced from its original format / physical reality by the addition of another image of another place and time, producing a sort of double exposure. Using multiple images enables the figures in the paintings to transcend the familiar to sit, or stand, within a metaphysical, dreamlike environment. Whilst being aware that the trace of the familiar ‘old photo’ resonates with viewers, for Schwab it’s not about memory but continuity, our little lives recorded, then and now.
The subjects are held momentarily; here they are standing on a beach at sundown, picnicking, posing with their pet. They are instantly familiar but the setting is not, it’s a painted place with blurry edges.
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