Webster’s Linda Littleton: Teaching and Creating Art for Others

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Jeffrey Starr, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

One of Linda Littleton's many tranquil scenes.

For Webster's Linda Littleton, painting for others is just as important as painting for herself. A retired teacher, she continues to give art lessons at galleries, in addition to exhibiting her work and doing consignment pieces for individuals and businesses.

Personally, she works primarily in water-based paints, water colors and acrylics, in addition to oils, pastels and inks at times. She enjoys landscapes, especially those that involve water, and is a semi-abstract painter by trade. But, ultimately, much of the time it isn't necessarily about her particular artistic sensibilities with a particular piece. She is selfless in this sense. The desires and needs of others are more important.

"I would want people to smile, feel an emotion, or think about something memorable after seeing my work," she remarks.

"I can paint almost anything someone wants. I also do house portraits that make wonderful gifts and will also do a painting of your truck, car, boat or animal."

And as you might expect from a retired teacher, in addition to creating paintings for the expressed purpose of pleasing others, she enjoys instructing others on how to do the same, especially children.

"I get great satisfaction out of doing my work especially with the kids I teach," she says.

"They are encouraged to explore their style and feel positive about art. Learning to take a chance and create something nice is a great learning tool."

Her Personal Work

When painting for herself, however, as mentioned, she loves water landscapes, a love she learned from so many summers on Cape Cod and of course living right off the beautiful Webster Lake in Central Mass where she now maintains her home studio.

They are often "pictures of tranquil scenes, boats, islands and fishermen," she describes.

"My ideas come from my photos, other peoples suggestions and sometimes just from a thought. I am a fast painter who likes to work on a subject until it is complete. The trick is knowing when to stop!"

Painting is truly a life-long passion for Littleton. She started painting and dabbling in art in the sixth grade in her hometown of Peabody, where she won the emblem contest for the Peabody Tanners. She studied art throughout high school, and was an editor of a teen magazine in where she used her own art work and ink sketches with the articles. In addition, she was asked to illustrate a book of poems.

This early success in the world of art as a teenager is perhaps why she is so passionate about sharing her knowledge with children. You never know when opportunity will knock on your door, perhaps it will even come as early as sixth grade. A kid, even that young, should be ready to explore these possibilities.

For the Future: Supporting Local Artists

Littleton recently completed a large consignment job for the new Hometown Bank in Webster, a business, as the name suggests, interested in getting deeply involved with and supporting the local community.

"They supported the idea of a local artist doing the paintings for the walls and working together, we created a real home town feel to the bank," she explains.

"There are large acrylics of old downtown Webster, Cranston Print, Bates Grove, French River Bridge, Beacon Park and more. They were wonderful to work with and I loved the experience," she describes further.

For the future, she will continue to keep others in mind, especially fellow local artists, who need all the help they can get. She is currently acting as the chair of the Webster Arts Council and hopes to use said job to advance that goal. She also hopes other local businesses do the same as Hometown Bank in attempting to promote local artists.

"I am looking forward to advancing opportunity for local artists here," she says.

For more information on Linda Littleton and to view her work please visit her website.