Linda Vario

Contemporary artist Linda Vario was born and educated in Adelaide, South Australia. She began painting in her early twenties before undertaking seven years of formal study under private tutors. Drawn by the unique beauty and unequalled colour of its idyllic location, Vario moved to South East Queensland in 1996. Influences from the vast richness of art and culture in South Australia and the natural beauty of coastal Queensland are reflected in her art.

This journey allowed Vario creative space to learn, explore and experiment in all aspects of painting, culminating in an ability to apply a broad spectrum of techniques to her work. Creating intricate, visually stimulating works of resonating emotion and extravagant colour, Vario has mastered a rhythmical balance of both harmonious and spontaneous expression, resulting in works of provocative form, light and emotive energy.

In much of her work, Vario orchestrates a combination of mediums layered to create high-relief tactile finishes with three-dimensional impact. She is constantly stretching her chosen medium (acrylic) to its full potential. In these artworks, chromatism is the artist’s chosen tool for constructing images, where the artist’s bright and vivid colours are reflective of her links to the seductive Australian landscape.

Constantly evolving, Vario’s current work is free and expressive exuding strength, energy, warmth and life. Moulded works are carefully sculpted, then worked into an acrylic-painted background with silver and gold leaf used extensively throughout.

Many of Vario’s artworks are finished with a glass-like look. For care of these works she suggests treating them as if the finish was glass – no hard bumps or scratching.

Paintings in Vario’s “Wealth” series with background Chinese motifs were inspired by a trip to Shanghai. The background is composed of papers collected on her adventures, later going through an extensive acid-free process to make them PH neutral. Colours are then enhanced or changed using watercolour paints and overlaid with acrylic paint, gold leaf, ink and antiquing. Here again they are finished off with her trademark glass-like finish.

Highly sought after, Vario is represented in respected galleries nationally and internationally. Her work is held in numerous private and corporate collections and she is frequently commissioned by private and corporate sectors. In 2009 Vario was selected as one of six Australian artists to be part of the prestigious annual international exhibition at the Castello Estense di Ferrarra in northern Italy, in an exhibition titled “Imaginary Journeys”

“… pure intuition that, spontaneously generated within her soul, drives her brush and palette knife towards magnetic colour combinations, inviting observers to plunge into an intimate universe.”  (Paulo Trevisan, Curator, Castello Estense di Ferrarra)