Tellico Plains artist finds her inspiration in the mountains
L
ynda Best lives in paradise, and it shows in the paintings she creates. A lifelong artist (“By the time I was 12 I was giving art lessons to other kids and getting paid for it!”), Best and her husband Steve live in Tellico Plains at the foot of the Cherohala Skyway. Many of her subjects—the waterfalls and rushing streams, flowering rhododendrons and mountain laurel—come from the national forests surrounding her.
In fact, it was those clear mountain streams that made her fall in love with Tennessee after falling in love with the man who brought her here. “I lived in New Orleans for a while, and the water there was so swampy.”
Sometimes she’ll paint as she soaks up her surroundings. “If it’s easy access (to the subject she wants to capture) I can sit on the side of the road and paint,” Lynda says. “To get to a lot of the waterfalls you have to hike your heinie down the hill, and I don’t like to carry all my materials. So Steve takes photos for me.”
The resulting contemporary paintings capture the essence of the outdoors in acrylics. She says Georgia O’Keeffe was a big influence in her work.
“I did impressionistic work during college, but I’ve loosened up a lot more.” She highlights all the edges in her pieces. “It’s time consuming, but I find it very meditative. When I paint I don’t think about a lot of junk. I enjoy the painting process.”
In addition to water landscapes and the flora and fauna of the mountains, Best has painted a series of women in landscapes that she calls her feminine ascension pieces.
“The female spirit is nurturing and giving and serving. That energy is strong on our planet,” she says. “If we want to evolve into higher consciousness we have to balance that with masculine energy.”
Lynda teaches art classes from time to time (she spent years as an educator using art as a tool in her teaching). You can also on her website, lyndabestartist.com.
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