Tag: Edmonton

Artist Spotlight: Linda Finstad

October 18, 2022 / Conal

Linda Finstad is an Edmonton-based artist and author. Throughout the pandemic, she painted using coffee. Yes, coffee. Now, she’s painting with cat hair, dust bunnies, cigarette butts, and other truly useless items. Yes, truly.

The England-born artist started out as a horse-show photographer and sort of, kind of fell into an art career because of a combination of cellphones, Facebook, and an art collector from Texas. It all comes together in the interview below.

Linda has a fabulous sense of humour — as you might expect — given her ability to paint with some of the above items. The laughs came a mile a minute during our chat. Enjoy!

[Featured Artwork: “Whole Bottle” by Linda Finstad.]

The 12 Gallon Mural

September 10, 2022 / Conal

“Yay, networking,” my artist wife said last September.

She was sitting in the corner of our living room in her navy blue easy chair. She had completed a mural the previous week. In my super casual, completely stealth, I’m-hunting-for-story-inspiration way, I was asking her about how the opportunity had come about in the first place.

Apparently, the opportunity to paint this mural came about quickly. And it came with the added pleasure of collaborating with another artist.

Artist Spotlight: Shelby Willis

August 30, 2022 / Conal

You know how you meet people and they’re just so happy that it’s infectious? That would describe Edmonton-area artist Shelby Willis. I had the joy of chatting with her recently while she escaped the loving rigors of caring for her newborn daughter.

Shelby has a distinct, colorful style that can turn anyone into an animal lover.

By the time our 20-minute chat ended, I could hear her daughter crying out in the background and I could hear Shelby’s heart wanting to go to her. So, we said our farewells and I hope her daughter will learn as she grows up how lucky she will be to have Shelby’s art available to inspire her.

[Featured Artwork: “Aztec Bear” by Shelby Willis.]