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Linda Blondheim: Impressionism is alive and well.

by William Lehman on February 3rd, 2007

Linda Blondheim recently sent me a painting that she did entitled “Town and Country Farm” (14×18 inches, oil on canvas)

My first look at it reminded me of impressionist artists. I half expected to see some ladies in the background with umbrellas…lol. My next thought was that it was a retouched photograph with a paintbrush effect. It’s not though.

This is indeed superb work by a very talented artist. Linda is a “plein air” artist. A very lively bunch who love to paint outside in whatever elements come their way. I am sure this proves to have it’s own challenges (such as lugging your easel and paints up the side of a mountain) but also it’s advantages too.

These are the purist painters who get into their work, suffer no interpretation for their own eyes and are seriously dedicated to their work.

Linda says this about “Town and Country Farm”:

This painting is part of a year long study of trees here in North Florida. It was painted at one of the farms I frequent to paint trees. It was a complex scene with lots of objects which I needed to sort through to make a workable composition. As a plein air painter, I have learned over the years that less is more in composition. Naturally I moved the major elements around to suit myself, and played the values to each other for more drama. Each new painting is an adventure for me and I do learn from each one. I am a student of design and much of the focus in my paintings involves that process. I like the decision making process of painting, Knowing that each stage of the painting can lead me in a different direction is very challenging. I often wonder, had I made a different decision would I have improved the painting or made it worse? That’s the joy of painting to me.

While browsing Linda’s website, I discovered that she does in excess of 300 paintings per year. This in itself is pretty phenomenal. But if I lived in Florida instead of Ohio, I might want to paint outside a lot more too. :D

Thanks for your submission Linda. Any tips for those of us in colder climates for trying this type of painting (besides coming to Florida)?

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