On The Spot: Linda Albertini

Dreamy and soft, the art of Linda Albertini (aka Country Highway Atelier) is beaming with homely heat and a welcoming glow. To make her drawings more mushy, this Swiss-primarily based illustrator reaches for some Czech fairy tale magic and adds a reviving contact of Finnish mother nature. It’s simple – they all run by way of her veins.

In this week’s On The Spot, she talks far more about her blended heritage, her mysteriously American and yet astonishingly anime-motivated alias, and her creative regime. Sign up for in!

Your artist alias is Country Highway Atelier. What’s the story at the rear of it?

Very first of all, I am a place lady at heart. I have cherished roaming by means of meadows and forests and finding mother nature since I was a baby. Just lately we moved pretty considerably out into the countryside and now I actually live in a minor cottage on a “country road”.

Nonetheless, I very first believed of the name when I observed the motion picture “Whisper of the Heart” by Studio Ghibli. It’s about a female who courageously follows her desire to create a reserve. I identified myself quite a great deal in this girl… And given that there is also a wonderful Japanese edition of the track “Country Roads” sung in the movie, I determined to use this identify.

What ended up your to start with techniques as an artist? How did you come to be a children’s ebook illustrator?

Drawing has usually been my favorite thing to do, and I was especially passionate about telling tales with pictures. As a teenager I went to art school for a couple of yrs, but grew to become somewhat discouraged there and pretty much did not consider in pursuing illustration critically as a job.

It was not until eventually several years later on that I took the plunge and began my Instagram account in 2021. I just drew what I relished most, and to my surprise, serious requests for children’s textbooks and product illustrations quickly started out arriving in my inbox.

On your internet site, you produce that your mom is from Finland and your father will come from the Czech Republic. Does your origin impact your art in any way?

Very much! The Czechs are just wonderful at telling fairy tales, developing magical worlds, and they are also genuinely excellent at children’s e-book illustration. A lot of Czech illustrators are amongst my absolute favorites, and I am passionate about accumulating aged Czech children’s books.

Finland, on the other hand, has normally reinforced my appreciate for character for me, there is nowhere extra lovely mother nature than there. Finnish nature has something magical, mysterious and pristine about it. I attempt to integrate this factor into my function as significantly as feasible.

What else evokes your get the job done?

Mother nature and my combined heritage on the a single hand, on the other hand I am inspired a good deal by stories and flicks. Past but not least, my faith in Jesus Christ has a big impact on my function. I feel that God is infinitely imaginative and that he enjoys it when we turn out to be inventive as well.

Wherever do you usually work and what does your studio appear like?

Given that we moved into a compact home some time in the past, I was at last in a position to set up a studio at house. My operate table is really massive, since I respect a roomy and tidy workspace. All-around it, even so, there are compact treasures all over the place – be it prints, postcards or ornaments on the partitions, or tin cans and wooden bins whole of modest, attractive things I collected in character.

What is your artistic method?

It is dependent on the project. Client initiatives, particularly individuals with demanding deadlines, definitely need meticulous planning and clearly established intermediate goals.

My individual tasks are much freer and depend more on what evokes me the most at the moment. I also like to consciously change the inventive system or change the medium. This frequently delivers wonderful benefits and retains me versatile in my method.