Linda Gunn, a LPAPA Artist Member and resident of Long Beach, California, won the Best of Theme award in The San Diego Watercolor Society’s extraordinarily competitive March 2021 exhibition “My Life, My Story” held virtually their website at www.sdws.org.  Gunn’s painting entitled “The Imagined” was selected by prominent Australian artist and juror Graeme Stevenson for this honor, out of more than 270 entries. Stevenson said of  the painting, “A good painting is always going to tell some kind of story. This artist has tapped into some form of dream story, I would think, and possibly put him or herself into a familiar scene along the San Diego coast line. This is a memory piece that possibly comes from a profound happening in this person’s life.”

Linda Gunn is an artist, illustrator, and author. An established artist of thirty plus years, Linda was taught to draw at an early age by her Disney Artist grandfather, George Drake, who had been hired by Walt Disney in 1929 to recruit 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 such as Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell. 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 and watercolor skills were perfected through years of life drawing classes at Long Beach City College, where she studied watercolor from 1981-1992 under the professional eye of Mike Daniel. Linda wants her paintings to depict her love of life and its magic. Linda’s work can be found at LindaGunn.com.