Lynda Black

I was born in Zambia and moved to UK age 5. From 1977-1984 I completed a BA Hons in Fine Art, MA Printmaking and Post-Grad Diploma in Conservation of Fine Art. 

Following my training I worked for several years as a Paper Conservator in major Galleries, Museums and Archives in UK, Africa and Australia. In 2005 I re-connected and committed to fulltime art practice exhibiting in minor regional shows, winning awards and commendations along the way. 

Between 2018 and 2020 I lived in Florence, Italy where I studied Classical Realism full-time; the focus was pure academic drawing and painting under instruction from Michael John Angel and Sergey Chubirko. My intention was to experience and commit to a rigorous approach to studio practice, become more efficient in both composition and drawing from memory and imagination. I learnt what was not taught during my much earlier five years at art school. 

Up until my time in Florence, my approach had been ad hoc and spontaneous often resulting in accidental, laboured or unresolved conclusions. I have always and continue to work from sketches including direct observations from life/nature, memory, imagination or compositional ideas. My work now is to combine the freedom of not knowing with the rigour of applied knowledge. 

My body of work includes narrative works, improvised story-telling in the form of hand-drawn charcoal, stop-motion animations; closely observed still life paintings; plein-air studies from industrial sites such as salt pans, disused mine sites, power stations and more recently, Newcastle Port. 

I have an ongoing obsession with resolving and completing a number of large imaginary works that have evolved over the last 10 years - almost there.