Linda Van Gilder Kelley's art career began when she was 13 years old and won a painting contest in her hometown of Middletown, Ohio. She attended Miami University and Ohio University (B.S. with a Minor in Art). She received a Master's degree in Educational Communications at the University of Hawaii in 1974.

She taught elementary school for eight years in Honolulu, Hawaii - six years for the State Department of Education and two years for a large,
K-12 private school, Punahou School. A young man named Barack Obama attended school there at the same time.

Following her teaching in Hawaii, she taught intermediate level science and was the yearbook editor at Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, Washington. She moved to Cherry Hills Village, Colorado in 1993.

In May 2009 Linda traveled to Waterford, Ireland and painted at Curraghmore, the estate of Lord and Lady Waterford, Tyrone and Caroline Beresford.

Linda can work in all mediums but prefers painting in oils, acrylics and watercolors. Her favorite subjects are the elements of her surroundings: the ocean, mountains, trees, flowers, buildings - i.e. landscapes and still life. She prefers starting her work en plein air and always begins her paintings from real life. She has taught adult watercolor seminars at her home. She exhibits annually at the Kent Denver School Art Show.

Linda is an active artist with a professional Denver painting group, Studio 208, located in the emerging new arts center of Downtown Denver known as the RiNo (River North) art district. She also paints with Sunset Studio.
At work in her studio in Colorado