painter linda S. gunn

LINDA S. GUNN

Artist,Illustrator, Author

An established artist of thirty plus years, Linda was taught to draw at an early age by her Disney Artist grandfather, George Drake (hired by Walt Disney in 1929 to hire and train new artists for the fledgling Disney Studio). Linda, an avid reader of illustrated books, became encouraged toward painting by the works of the famous illustrators Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Arthur Rackham, and later by the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. At the age of ten, she was given John Gnagy's Art Studio in a Box. It contained instructional books with supplies for drawing, oil and watercolor painting. She also had several opportunities to visit the works of her favorite artists through visits to the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Barnsdale Park Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Linda's drawing skills were perfected through years of life drawing classes at Long Beach City College, where she studied watercolor under the professional eye of Mike Daniel (from 1981-1992).

Color In Your Life interview

In June 2018 Linda was interveiwed by Graeme Stevenson, from the television series Color in Your Life, where she did a live plein air painting from a vantage point overlooking the beach at Point Fermin, CA. Below are some stills from the CIYL video that offer a peek into Linda's personal history as well as a couple of her most useful watermedia painting tricks. To see the techniques demonstrated in context of her painting, watch the CIYL video

my grandfather, george drake, was an inspiration
george instructing some new recruits at walt disney studios
the staff at walt disney studio. george and walt are in there... somewhere!
here i am at age seven (front-right). do i look like i'm in the wrong classroom?
children at the boys and girls club of longbeach hold up their favorite illustration from the book a cedar valley christmas written by ned mansour, illustrated by linda gunn.
christmas forrest, from the book
my first art studio came in a small box... and had everything i needed.
this is me (left) and my sister at an art reception for norman rockwell, who never showed up due to heavy rain. an la times reporter took this photo at the food table as we waited.