Linda Jo Nazarenus - Distant Visions

November 5-28, 2026
Artist’s Reception: First Thursday, November 5, 6-8 PM

Linda Jo Nazarenus creates richly detailed paintings of expansive landscapes and the wildlife that inhabits them. Influenced by the Northern European masters of the Renaissance, she builds her images through layers of thin oil glazes, rendering fur, stone, foliage, and atmospheric light with remarkable precision. Drawing on the landscapes of Sweden and the American Southwest, her work expresses both reverence for nature and a fascination with its mystery.

In Distant Visions, animals and landscapes are interwoven with human symbols of longing, memory, belief, and our desire to reach beyond the known. The Very Large Array’s dishes turn toward outer space; an obelisk marks the Trinity Site; a solitary church, a sacred tree near Pueblo ruins, a “lucky” keepsake of a lost loved one, and Seattle’s Space Needle become charged with personal and mystical associations. Juxtaposed with animals and the natural world, these objects and places take on an uncanny, otherworldly presence.

Nazarenus gives her animals an unusual sense of awareness, making them seem as conscious of the viewer as they are of their own precarious existence. Her landscapes similarly resist being merely scenic, becoming spaces of uncertainty, contemplation, and wonder.

Click here to view additional work by Linda Jo Nazarenus