ARTISANS

Linda Cleveland was born and raised in Southern California.  At age 20, after taking an art class, she took some of her pieces to her workplace and sold her first painting.  This encouraged her to become a serious artist.  She is primarily self-taught and but has taken workshops and classes with artists whose work she admires.  She enjoys working in oils and acrylics painting landscapes and animals.

 

A trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona in 1972 created a desire to someday live and paint in Arizona.  That desire came true in 2005 when she and her husband moved to Arizona's Mogollon Rim.  It's a landscape painter's dream with everything from mountains and forests to desert vistas.  While living in Arizona, a friend gave Linda some fallen tail feathers from her pet turkeys.  She said, "Here, do something with these".  They talked about including them in flower arrangements or fall decorations.  Later, Linda thought it might be fun to paint a portrait of one personable turkey named "Tom-Tom" on one of his own feathers as a Christmas gift to her friend.  The creation of this well-received gift started Linda on a journey exploring processes, techniques and mediums to create these unusual art pieces.