Linda Salter’s flower paintings are featured in July at Portola Art Galley

A Summer Bouquet, a collection of flower paintings in pastel and oil by Linda Salter, is the featured exhibit at the Portola Art Gallery through July 31. A reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, July 21 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.

This exhibit features a new style of painting for the artist. While she has enjoyed using pastels for many years for portraits and plein air landscapes, in this show she explores pastels for still life and floral paintings.

“Using pastel for still life paintings demanded an approach very different from my previous work — a much looser, impressionistic style,” said the artist. “These new pastels then inspired and influenced a new style in my oil painting as well.”

Summer Bouquet is a collection of recent paintings — some in pastel, some in oil — that resulted from this exploration.

Linda has exhibited and received awards at community and college art shows; she has also exhibited solo at Avenue 25 Gallery in San Mateo, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, and the Museum Studios Gallery in Burlingame.

She spent more than three decades as an instructor and administrator in California colleges, serving as president of Skyline College in San Bruno and chancellor of West Valley-Mission Community College District in Santa Clara County. Since retiring as chancellor more than a decade ago, she has studied with a number of artists who teach at local colleges, as well as at Gage Academy in Seattle, Scottsdale Artists’ School, and classical ateliers in the Bay Area.

“A Summer Bouquet (12×16”, oil, 2018) is one of the featured artworks in Linda Salter’s July exhibit by the same name at the Portola Art Gallery, located at the Allied Arts Guild, 75 Arbor Road, Menlo Park.