Teaching allows artist to pass on love of art
Linda Schneider, 54, has always sketched. She recalls drawing on furniture when she was young, and once she scratched a design onto a family friend’s new Cadillac with a golf tee. She got into trouble but she was just beginning.
A calligrapher and watercolor artist, Schneider creates ornate pictorials in ink and portraits in watercolor. Doodling is a relaxing pastime but she takes the concept much farther with elaborate lettering and loops and swirls that become dancing figures and lively objects.
Her watercolor portraits are traditional with a hint of nostalgia. She captures the essence of her subjects and gives life to their poses. One painting of her son wearing a stethoscope and tending to a teddy bear was used for the cover of Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1999.
Teaching art is another way Schneider leaves her mark. In 1974, she earned a bachelor’s degree in art and art education from Rocky Mountain College in Billings and the University of Nevada in Reno.
In Nevada she taught at the Sierra Arts Foundation, the Wittenberg Juvenile Detention Center and various medical centers and schools.
In 1995, she left Reno and moved to Liberty Lake with her family for a quieter lifestyle. She easily adapted to the local art scene, and began teaching at Southside Christian, The Oaks Classical Christian Academy, Valley Home Scholars and Spokane Arts, Too in the Valley.
While many of her students may not become artists, she teaches them to express themselves. She teaches the classics via observation and imitation, and has her students draw in a journal every day. If nothing else, they learn to appreciate and respect beauty. She enjoys passing on the love of art to her students and finds that while teaching she also learns.
She has exhibited her work at many forums, including the Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane City Hall and Art on the Green.
She has served as president of Scripts and Scribes, Spokane Calligraphy Guild and has been a member of the Spokane Watercolor Society since 1995.
Schneider is a commissioned artist for companies including Marcel Schurman Design of San Francisco that primarily supplies the Papyrus Stores with designer cards. She was also commissioned to paint one of the life-sized bears sponsored by Ronald McDonald House. Her black and white bear is the “Bearer of Hope” and features sayings and the word “hope” in more than 30 languages. It can be seen at Deaconess Medical Center. The next auction for the Ronald McDonald House will include two of her pieces – a hand painted tiger and giraffe.
Schneider’s skills enable her to create, but it is the blessings of God, family, friends and mentors that truly inspire her.
“As artists we need to reach out to one another and share ideas. It’s like holding a butterfly in your hand … live life with an open hand, she said”
Her tip for other artists: practice, practice, practice.