Linda Bachammar is a French painter and designer with national and international visibility. Her work is mainly focused on a poetry of existence, drawing its inspiration from nature, travel or meditation. Linda installs sweet and strange reveries in her works, expressing all her energy and breath of life through intense colors. The artist seeks to create a poetry of links between human and nature, dream and reality, the human species and spirituality. She dreams of the world from Fontainebleau, where she lives right in front of the forest, one of her great sources of inspiration.
1) Which art movement do you consider most influential on your practice?
Japanese prints, expressionism, the pre-raphaelites, shamanic art, surrealism and romantism.
2) Where do you go and when to make your best art?
My studio is in the attic of my apartment and that's why I chose it. I live in Fontainebleau, near the forest and that's where I create the best. I feel safe from everything, in a space which belongs only to me and which reminds me of the secrets of childhood. I like to feel like I have my private space to create. I create all the time in my head, especially in the evening, I see images and associate them mentally. During the day I try to unravel all this, to put them into material, in sketches, in painting.
3) How do you describe your 'creative process'?
It is a process that takes place over time. Over the years, patterns, colors, themes, ideas come and go in my paintings. There is a link between them. I write down a lot of things in notebooks, always with the idea of small secret spaces, I take a lot of photographs and I also collect a lot of images in magazines or on the internet from which I sometimes draw inspiration.
4) Which artist, living or deceased, is the greatest inspiration to you?
Kuniyoshi, James Ensor, John Martin, Waterhouse, Picasso.
5) If you weren't an artist, what would you do?
I have already answered this question in the past, since before becoming an artist I was a journalist-photographer for business creators and then a relationship coach for managers. All of these jobs were fantastic because I was helping others to reveal themselves or develop, but there came a turning point in my life where I needed to create. I needed to share my intimate view of the world. This was accompanied by a greater attachment to nature, to animals, as a spiritual and artistic awakening. Since then, I have not stopped painting.
6) What do you listen to for inspiration?
Sludge psyché, electro-pop, post rock and post punk.
7) If you could own one artwork, and money was no object, which piece would you acquire?
Cleopatra from John William Waterhouse.
8) If your dream museum or collection owner came calling, which would it be?
I would love to say the Tate Modern in London.
9) What is your key piece of advice for artists embarking on a fine art or creative degree today?
Stay connected to the deepest part of ourselves to create something personal, not to be afraid.
10) What is your favorite book of all time (fiction or non fiction)?
1Q84 from Harry Murakami.
11) If you could hang or place your artwork in one non traditional art setting, where would that be?
A sort of house made of old wood and branches in the Brocéliande forest in France.
12) What was the biggest lesson your university course or time studying taught you?
Learn and disobey.
13) And finally, if we were to fast forward 10 years, where would we find you?
Always creating, painting, learning, connected to nature, traveling around the world to discover the most beautiful pieces of art and to make my painting known.
Learn more about Linda and discover her collection of paintings.
