Linda Jane Smith's love of drawing began when she was quite young and is forever tied to the stories that inspire her and to the ones that she tells through her work. At age 16, Smith entered Bournville College of Art, in Birmingham, to study graphic design. It was here that Smith first began to experiment with her medium of choice, gouache. Discovering this medium has greatly informed Smith’s artwork; the water-based paint can be thinned and applied as a translucent wash and built up layer by layer or brushed on in rich strokes of color. This allows Smith to slowly build a piece from background to foreground, focusing on the fine details in her rich, narrative works, which humorously star cats in everyday human situations.

After art school, Smith began to organize exhibitions and sold some of her work to The Stable Gallery in London, which was also the site of her first major exhibition. She has had many since, and earned a fan base in England and abroad. Smith is inspired by illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Nicola Bailey, who fill their compositions with incredible detail. She seeks to fill her own work with similar depth and collects images from magazines and books on interior design, antiques, architecture, and fabrics, which she uses as reference material when she’s working on a new piece.