The landscapes of the Cariboo never fail to inspire Linda Bachman.
Based out of an acreage in 150 Mile House, Bachman has spent years painting landscapes and wildlife. A longtime contributor to the Station House Art Gallery in Williams Lake, next month Bachman is making her debut at Parkside Art Gallery in 100 Mile House with her new show As Scene.
“It was a lovely surprise. Parkside had a spot vacant and they knew I had a few paintings at home from the past,” Bachman said. “It’s called As Scene because they are paintings previously seen in Squamish, Whistler and the Cariboo. These are paintings that are from right from 2010 to 2024.”
Bachman got her start in art young with colouring books, delighting in filling in and outlining each design. With encouragement from her father and her uncle Albert Sulimoski, a talented painter in his own right, she branched out to drawing and painting. Some of her first work was painting the walls of nurseries for several of her high school teachers, who were young men with families.
Throughout college and her professional career, Bachman carried on creating art, largely teaching herself everything she knows today. Even when she didn’t have enough time to paint she always ensured she had an art room set aside in her home, for when the mood took her.
“Nature and the landscapes around me (inspired me). When we moved out to Squamish and later the Cariboo there was just unlimited inspiration, I can’t keep up with everything. It’s the artist’s eye, we all have it,” Bachman said, noting she moved to the Cariboo in 2016.
While living in Squamish Bachman helped run a local art gallery where she was happy to showcase the talents of well over 50 artists. That gallery has since been torn down but she remarked she made many happy memories there.
After retiring a decade ago Bachman said she had more time to devote to her art. Over the last several years she’d produced dozens of acrylic paintings, several of which she has collected together for As Scene. Bachman said the show serves as a showcase of her artistic growth over the last 15 years.
She’s bringing 30 paintings to 100 Mile House, five of which are not for sale and are from her personal collection. In addition to landscapes, she’s also contributed several paintings of birds, including one of an owl hunting at night, a personal favourite.
“When I look back these paintings aren’t the ones I see in my portfolio it’s the ones over and above and I go ‘wow, I really am a painter’,” Bachman chuckled. “It’s something that’s really satisfying.”
As Scene opens on Saturday, March 2 at Parkside Gallery with an opening running from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bachman encourages anyone with an interest in art to come check out the show and say hello at the opening.
“I want to spread out and I’m really excited to bring up the past and see the sequence of events of all the work I’ve done in the past. I think it will be exciting for everybody to see.”
