Lindy Cook Severns
Fort Davis, TX
A native West Texan, I'm passionate about nature. We live on a working ranch near historic Fort Davis, and I paint what I live, one sunset at a time.
MessageLindy Cook Severns paints southwestern landscapes, wildlife and flora on location and in her studio on a working ranch high in the remote mountains of Far West Texas.
The contemporary Texas artist grew up drawing and painting. She began selling her landscape paintings in galleries and painting commissioned portraits after graduation from Texas Tech University with a BA in English/Biology. A fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo, she a ran a family-oriented martial arts studio for many years and found the mental discipline and hand-eye coordination of martial arts spilled over into her painting. A licensed pilot before her marriage, Lindy flew first officer on a corporate jet beside her pro pilot husband Jim for almost two decades. Thousands of hours at 41,000 feet gave the aviatrix/artist an insider's understanding of the dramatic skies that color many of her paintings today.
Lindy is a seventh generation Texan, a Mayflower and Jamestown descendant. Frontiers are in her blood, and her landscapes are authentic: through her artwork, you can travel to remote places in the wild American west, high desert ranch country, the Chihuahuan Desert, Big Bend National Park and Texas Hill Country. The adventurous artist paints from photos of the couple's hikes and drives. Smaller pastels are done on location, en plein air.
In 2004, the couple began a new life adventure. They sold their custom-built Lubbock, Texas home of 26 years, quit their jobs and bought big RV. Then, they set out to see America the slow way, traveling backroads instead of jet routes. But the mountains near remote Fort Davis and Marfa snared them, and their travels now are primarily around Far West Texas They pack up every couple of months and set out to spend weeks painting new vistas or attending art events. After years of jet-setting and checking into an endless succession of luxury hotels, the couple loves the uncluttered lifestyle and comfort of being "home" wherever they are. Lindy enjoys the luxury of immersing herself in a landscape before she paints it, and is critically acclaimed for her "sense of place".
Lindy Cook Severns art hangs in most every state in the USA and in collections in England, Australia, Germany and Canada. Selected as one of 35 artists for the definitive book TEXAS TRADITIONS, CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS OF THE LONE STAR STATE (McGarry and Duty 2010), she is also featured in a 2016 PBS documentary on creativity, WESTERN PERSPECTIVES.
Lindy is the 2020 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for the College of Arts and Sciences of Texas Tech University.
Lindy and Jim enjoy the companionship of two stubbornly affectionate rescued terriers and a cranky African Grey parrot who passionately loves art. She is the Artist-in-Residence at Old Spanish Trail Gallery and Museum, and also hangs art at The V6 Collection and Gallery of the Gage Hotel in Marathon.
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Statement
As a southwest landscape painter, my office is wherever I see the sun rise each morning, wherever I watch clouds build or sunset color the land. Some paintings are born of reference photos and completed in my rustic studio. Others, I paint en plein air, on location. Every artwork is inspired by a hike, drive, or living what I paint. My landscape paintings are real places, vistas I've experienced; my wildlife drawings are portraits of neighboring critters; I carefully draw the wildflowers that bloom beside my hiking boots. When I paint ordinary subjects, I look for magic: magnificence in the mundane.
My husband Jim says that when I paint a big, dramatic sky, I'm channeling all those years I spent banking thru clouds in a jet. There's truth in that: I know those skies as intimately as I know the high desert of Far West Texas. When I paint a sky, I feel the wind pulling at my hair. I want you to feel that, too.
Whether I'm painting in oils, watercolors or with soft pastels, I use strong compositions and dramatic southwest colors. I want my landscapes to carry across the room, to take your breath away. But I also paint in fine detail, adding features meant to be enjoyed up close. I want each painting to hold hidden surprises, a series of small delights for my viewers.
Artists are wired with a desire to share the beauty that we perceive so acutely. Whenever I paint, I'm reaching out to You.
In my paintings, I share the joyous freedom of the still-wild frontiers I'm privileged to see.
all images copyright Lindy Cook Severns 2024
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