A New Year in the Landscape World

Brewster Farm
20x24 inches
acrylic on wood panella
See my paintings HERE

Thanks to so many for taking advantage of my December sale of small plein air paintings. 20 of those paintings have new happy homes!!

My January Browse Bin Special is in progress HERE through January 31, 2010. These are larger older paintings from my bin. All are 250.00 with free shipping.

This year will be full of activity and full of new work. I am focusing on wonderful trees and our rural lands of north Florida for 2010. I have changed my palette a bit and am tweaking that now. This palette has a more subtle color harmony with more rich grays and color accents for my new year.

I'll be on the road starting March 1st for a series of paint outs around north and central Florida. More about those later.

Happy New Year dear collector friends. I am so grateful for your support and interest in my work.
Love,
Linda

Landscape Painting at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

Dear Friends,
I will be away for the month of March. Stay tuned in April for new stories here on the blog.



Gator Pond
30x30 inches
oil on Birch Panel
Wired and read to hang unframed
2000.00
shipping 95.00
Purchase Here


Kanapaha Gardens

One of my favorite spots to visit in North Central Florida is Kanapaha Gardens. It is located on state road 24, just a few blocks west of I-75 in Gainesville. It is a adjacent to Kanapaha Prairie which offers a lovely vista, especially in the winter with lush wheat rust and mauve shades in the grasses. The garden has paths which wind through many varieties of plants. It has a huge bamboo garden in the middle, which is my favorite secret garden. I paint there frequently with Studio Dog. He loves to chew on the old pieces of bamboo canes which have fallen in the groves.


Bamboo Garden
Color Fields #37
5x7 inches
acrylic on Masonite Panel
unframed
55.00
Purchase HERE

There are water dishes placed around the garden paths for dogs and it's a real bonus to be able to take your dog with you.

There is a large water garden feature with exotic water plants, a cactus garden, and herb garden. The palm arboretum is especially nice. It features many palms, including several grand specimens of the Washingtonians with their long graceful petticoats.

At the entrance of the gardens you will find a large modern building called the Summer House with a gift shop and meeting rooms. Many events are held at the garden, including memorials, weddings and parties of all kinds. The garden has a very nice gift shop and has wheelchairs available for guests.

I have an annual pass, but you can pay a daily fee to enter.

This is the perfect place for quiet contemplation, outside of our busy world.

Here is the web site with information about the entrance fees and hours of operation.

This week's MAKE AN OFFER painting, Sunday Afternoon Rides, What should collectors do with too many paintings?

Lake Alice
8x10 inches
oil on Masonite Panel
Make an Offer

Your offer must be at least 10.00 You must pay Florida sales tax of 6.75% if you live in Florida and 4.00 for shipping. Send your offer to lindablondheim@gmail.com and put OFFER in the message line.

I'm a Sunday afternoon ride fan. When I was a child, my Daddy had a Model T Ford truck. It was the hit of the neighborhood because it was so old and even then it was stylish to have vintage cars. In those days it was customary to have a big full meal on Sunday afternoon with friends and family dropping in to eat. We often had fried chicken, which is still my favorite comfort food, or a baked ham, equally delicious. To this day, if I a worried or sad, I'll get the cast iron skillet out and fry chicken. Nothing is more comforting and I know no true southerner who doesn't love good fried chicken. Try the fried chicken at the Dixie Grill on US 98 in Live Oak Florida. It is incredible.

There were vine ripe beefsteak tomatoes right out of the garden, mashed potatoes and cream gravy, field peas and often homemade cakes and pies for dessert. In those days people really cooked and my love of cooking comes from my grandmother Resch who made Divine chicken perlow and homemade banana pudding in a deep Pyrex dish. That was the ultimate.

After stuffing ourselves and being turned loose outside to play and get out of the adults' hair, Daddy would load us in the truck for a Sunday drive. What I loved the most about it is the randomness and lack of purpose other than passing the time. People used to just have fun. We are so work oriented now from cradle to grave, that I wonder what happened?

We rode for miles on dusty roads in the back of that old pick up, going about 40 miles an hour. Daddy would yell out songs to us and we would sing along together, bouncing along, pretending that we were on a hay ride.

Perhaps it's time to bring back the Sunday afternoon drive, now that gas has gone down again.

Making Room for Art

Have you collected all the art you have room for but want to keep collecting? You are an artist's dream!! Here are some ways to enjoy more art.

Start a lending library among family and friends. lend out paintings for 6 months or a year at a time. Keep track of the paintings by using a data base. Put the dates of the loan and when they are expected to return with all contact information. You will be sharing your collection with many who cannot afford original art.

Rotate your art by storing half your collection for a year at a time. Each time you rotate, it will be a breath of freshness to see the beloved pieces again. You will have a new sense of pride in them.

Hang the work salon style. This is quite fashionable and fun for visitors. It involves hanging works floor to ceiling, frame to frame. I have the work in my office hung this way and it is fascinating to visitors. I never fail to get a Wow! reaction to this hanging style.

Hang work at your business office. Others will enjoy it and you can rotate the paintings every six months.

Enjoy paintings and then give them to friends for special gifts. Buy the painting, enjoy it for awhile and then give it to someone you care for. You will be able to visit the painting whenever you wish to, but spread the joy of ownership to to others, while creating more space for new art.

See my paintings HERE

New Make an Offer, Painting at Fair Oaks Farm, Patrons helping Artists

The winner of the 50.00 gift certificate for December is MARY NEAT Mary, email me at: lindablondheim@gmail.com



This Weeks Make and Offer painting.
Indian Pass Palms
8x10 inches
oil on Masonite Panel
unframed

Your offer must be at least 10.00 with 4.00 shipping or pick up at my studio. If you are a Florida resident add.0625% sales tax. Make offers to me at: lindablondheim@gmail.com Put OFFER in the message line.

Fair Oaks Farm

This month during the holidays I have been doing a lot of painting outside. The weather has been marvelous and I enjoy painting with my companion Henry(Studio Dog), my French bulldog. We load up the car with my painting gear and head out several days a week.

One of my favorite places to paint is Fair Oaks Farm in Evinston Florida. Evinston is the home of the Wood Swink Country Store and Florida's oldest post office. You will find my small paintings at the Wood Swink, depicting the farms and ranches in that area.

Fair Oaks Farm is just a mile or two from the Post Office. It is owned by a very kind and generous friend to painters, Rick Knellinger. Rick is an attorney by trade, but his passion is for his farm and the art that his friends produce. A few of us are lucky to have all the time we want to paint on this lovely farm. It is a privilege I don't take lightly.


Live Oak at Fair Oaks Farm
8x10 inches
Oil on Masonite Panel




Palm Hammock at Fair Oaks Farm
8x10 inches
oil on Masonite Panel


The farm is graced with ancient Live Oaks, Magnolias and tall graceful Palms. The lawn is emerald green with interesting patterns and shapes or dark green made by the cast shadows of old trees. This formal lawn is surrounded by fields dotted with palms, an orchard with lemon, grapefruit,tangerine and orange trees a lovely pond and bee hives. A lovely old Cracker barn sits behind the old house. The farm is home to Sand Hill Cranes and many other birds who take up residence in the winter.


Fair Oaks Barn
12x16 inches
oil on Raymar panel



The farm is lovingly cared for and treasured by it's owner and all who visit. I always meet interesting people there, and the ever charming Rick never fails to extend the most gracious hospitality.

Rick shared this wonderful story with me about the farm. In his words:

" Fair Oaks was originally part of a very large plantation.
The mansion burned around 1900. The present home was the guest house. The
stories that have come down to me are few. During the Civil War, soldiers
on leave were constrained by chaperones, but were wily enough to take the
objects of their affection for a ride in a tiny row boat on Clearwater Lake.
Room only for two! They threw balls to raise money for the Confederacy.
The lake is now a seasonal pond due to dropping water levels. The
cistern is all that is left of the mansion. It is 18 feet deep and about 9
feet in diameter. I would love to find someone to restore it.
For 35 years, Faye and Guy Miles, she a concert pianist and he a
literature professor, "camped out" here. My friends and I would come out to
dine and read Shakespeare on the balcony just before the gloaming, then
meander downstairs to a piano concert and much laughter where no one was
spared.
Puck was a regular visitor here too. Some of Faye's smallest
visitors saw him hiding in the bushes and ran to her to report it. In the
morning she would point out to the children the fairy rings in the fields
where they had danced in the starlight, and the dew kerchiefs they
carelessly left behind. Faye is the Muse that continues to guide each day
here. She would "let nothing be ordinary", as she held the fresh head of
lettuce, pulled it apart with her hands, and deeply inhaled its freshness.
She "joined the cosmos", as she promised to do, a few years ago. Every
person was welcome to her hospitality. For her 85th birthday, we surprised
her with a concert in the back yard, with renowned violinist Elwyn Adams.
He arrived in his huge 1974 Cadillac convertible with a broad straw hat, and
renewed his friendship with Faye from his first concert in Gainesville.
Faye was lucky to tip the scale at 100
pounds....very lucky. She wore torn jeans and formal dress with equal
panache. Once she was playing in a concert, where someone had failed to
lock the wheels on the Steinway. The longer she played the further the
piano slipped away from her hands and the lower her organdy dress slipped
from her breast. She relates that she had never played the piece with such
speed and authority managing to keep the audience in rapt suspense as to
which performance would finish first."


Being a painter gives me the opportunity to meet and visit many wonderful places in the world. It is a special life for which I am most grateful.

Most artists live a fairly minimal lifestyle, particularly if they are single. We are not wealthy financially, but we have a privileged life thanks to many patrons like Rick who share their lands and provide assistance. There are many ways to enhance an artist's career and assist them. Providing a space to paint, lodging at beautiful locations, equipment, referrals, commitments to financial support, and good business advice are just a few. Sometimes a simple invitation for coffee or lunch will boost an artist's feelings. If you admire and respect an artist, think about ways you might help them with their career.

See my paintings HERE

A boat Trip, My painting Process for Collectors

I'm off this Friday for a new adventure. I'm taking my sister, my 85 year old mother and Henry(AKA Studio Dog), on a boat tour in Cedar Key with Captain Doug. HERE I have wanted to do this tour for a long time and decided, Why Not? I plan to take many photographs along the route which I will use to make paintings later in my studio. I have long loved the wild places in the South and spend much time at rivers and lakes, photographing and doing small studies of scenes for later use. I will be sure to post about this adventure after the event and share some of the photos with you. If you are traveling in the area, be sure to take the boat tour.

Perhaps you will enjoy an explanation of my process in this. I use photos a lot in the studio for larger paintings. I feel that my best paintings are done in the studio where I can take the time to craft them carefully, stopping along the way in my process for drying periods and thinking periods between sessions.

I do smaller paintings on location to use as studies for possible compositions later in studio. These pochades (field studies) are road maps if you will, for larger works done more carefully in studio. These studies are almost always done alla prima, which means all at once, wet on wet with no drying period. They are usually quite simple in composition dealing with basic values and color. They give me the information I need to translate the scene into a larger work later. Alla prima is also done in the studio with the same approach in mind to use these small paintings as studies for larger works or to experiment with painting techniques and thematic subjects. Contrary to popular misconceptions, alla prima and plein air are not interchangeable. Alla prima means painting from start to finish in one session. Plein Air means painting out in the open air, or outside rather than in a studio.

Plein air painting may be done in multiple sessions with drying periods in between, though most painters do smaller works alla prima on location.

Sometimes, I will start larger paintings on location, doing the basic block in, color, shadows and composition. I then take these paintings back to the studio, where I take my time to complete them. All of these methods of painting produce interesting work.

As you consider paintings for your collection, you will need to think about which method is most pleasing to you. Studio work is more refined than alla prima plein air work. Alla prima work tends to be more simplistic in composition and design and looser in brushwork. It has a more abstract feel to it than studio work though they may both represent the same subject.



This Week's Make an Offer painting.
Curent Highest offer 50.00

Snd your offer to lindablondheim@gmail.com Put Offer in the message line.

New Art Exhibit at Ice House Gallery McIntosh, Florida

See Linda Blondheim's New "North Florida Farms and Ranches" Series at:

Ice House Gallery
"New Beginnings"
Opening December 5, 2008
6 - 10 PM
Ice House Gallery
US 441
McIntosh, Florida
Through December 31, 2008