Born in Buffalo NY in 1968 and raised in a suburb of Buffalo, Linda Chido started painting at a very young age and was always referred to as the artist by friends and family. She graduated in January 1994 from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Master of Architecture and a Master of Urban Planning. Since then she has lived on both coasts and many places in between - San Francisco CA, Albuquerque NM, Seattle WA, Milford CT, Queens NYC, and currently lives in Buda TX. A long and winding story best told over several drinks.
At the age of 33, Linda sought instruction in the Mischtechnik, and Old Master's technique with it's roots dating back to artists Jan van Eyck, Albrect Durer, and the Italian Renaissance painters. For eight week spread over two summers, Linda traveled to Florence, Italy and Vienna, Austria to receive instruction from Philip Rubinov Jacobson and Michael Fuchs. In 2003, she returned to Austria for a third time for the honor and privilege of receive instruction from the Maestro himself, Ernst Fuchs - a modern day visionary and the grandfather of all of us who paint in this technique.
Linda's time in Europe not only gave her skills that expanded her hand, it presented numerous opportunities to exhibit globally with some of the finest artists practicing today. From 2001 to 2003, Linda participated in twelve international exhibits which culminated in a three woman show at the InterArt Gallery in Manhattan NY. Several months later, Linda and her artist husband, Ron Gross, discovered they were pregnant with their first child. Linda made the conscious choice to put down her brushes to concentrate on caring for her children, turned her art focus to the fabric arts and sharing the world of art with her children through homeschooling.
After a 15-year hiatus, Linda has returned to her studio to focus again on her personal work. Over the winter of 2019-2020, Linda created a collection of twenty-three mixed media works on watercolor paper entitled, 'Playing in Wonderland'. Each piece is an interpretation of John Tenniels illustrations from the book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Most recently, one of Linda's self portraits, one of only forty selected from a field of 1,000 entrants, was included in a national juried exhibition of portraiture at the d'Art Center in Norfolk, VA.
In addition to new experimentations in other painting mediums, Linda has returned to her old love - oil painting. Since 2020 she has completed two new oil paintings and has several more on the easel in various stages. She is also working on completing older oil paintings left unfinished from the time before babies. Starting in September 2021, Linda is studying with Michael Fuchs again - taking his master's class on fantastic portraiture. Exactly twenty years since the last time, she is once again taking the steps to hone and expand her craft as she enters this next phase of her art career.
A painter, an accomplished fiber artist, an arts advocate, a public artist, an arts educator, and a homeschooler to her children, Linda has tried her hands at many art mediums and has extensive knowledge of the arts. She is very excited for this next phase of her art career and where it will take her. Linda currently lives in Buda TX with her artist husband, Ron Gross, their four incredibly talented children, a couple of dogs, and a big fat cat.
