Tofino Art: Linda Heslop

Linda Heslop is as rooted to Vancouver Island as the stones, sandy beaches and sea stars she paints with vivid realism.

Tutored by her artist father she has drawn and painted since early childhood and began painting in earnest before entering her teens. For fifteen years she worked freelance, illustrating numerous books, magazines and also writing and illustrating her own book, The Art of Caving, which detailed her years as a cave explorer and mapper.

Linda is an avid explorer, hiker and lover of nature, with both her vocation as a painter and her recreational pursuits involving seeking out wilderness in the remoter areas of Vancouver Island.

Linda now works exclusively in watercolour, her subject matter focusing on the ocean, the life and secrets to be found where sea meets shore. Highly realistic in style her paintings reflect an unusual blend of art and science. Behind the colour and shape of clustered sea stars there lies a fascination with the biology of these life forms themselves; within the translucent colour of a curling wave there is a delight in the physics of water and gravity; and hidden in the simplicity of a beach stone composition there is an awe of geological time frames.

Many of Linda’s paintings are inspired by the beauty of the Pacific Rim area. A walk on a wild pacific beach will reveal that no artist’s license is necessary to enhance the rainbow hues of our west coast sea stars. In keeping with the motto “Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints” Linda Heslop’s art is an invitation to take a little of the west coast home whilst leaving it undisturbed for others to enjoy.

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Linda’s original paintings, prints and cards are available at Schooner Gallery in Tofino. Visit the website at www.tofinoart.com