My family and I went on vacation a few weeks ago. We went to our normal place, New Smyrna Beach Florida. I took advantage of being in Florida to visit my friend and art business mentor Linda Blondheim.
Linda Blondheim is a fantastic landscape artist just outside of Gainesville, Florida. She has a country studio (shown in these photos) and she also has a “city gallery and studio” in town called Paddiwhack.
Linda paints what she calls “her Florida”. It’s not your normal painting of the ocean or sandy beaches, Linda paints rural Florida and I find her work just beautiful. Live oaks, orange trees, agriculture, wild flowers, birds and serene vistas make up most of her subjects.
I’m a big fan of trees and Linda is a master at painting them. If only I had an unlimited budget to purchase more and larger works. But I’m very happy with my little painting I bought from her while I was there. It’s proudly displayed in my home where I enjoy it every single day.
Linda is the most giving artist I know. She gives her time, her knowledge and her heart to anyone willing to ask for it. I have been following Linda Blondheim for quite a while, she has probably the best artist blog I visit. In fact, I get her posts sent to my inbox so I don’t miss a single one. She’s very consistent.
Linda generously shares information that has taken her decades to learn. It’s very much a blog for artists, but she doesn’t leave out her loyal collectors. Her blog is one I always recommend to my artist friends to go and learn from. She is a true professional. See my help page for artists here.
Her country studio is fantastic! It’s full of her beautiful work (as you can see) since it also acts as her storage for painting inventory. It rotates often though, Linda sells her work to many collectors. She also has many works in various galleries. She’s very prolific and paints every day.
As a new feature for your experience in Linda’s country studio, she’s now offering tea parties to her friends and collectors right there in her studio. She had it set up for us to enjoy when we arrived. Linda is an accomplished baker as well as artist and provides homemade goodies that I tell you are scrumptious.
We enjoyed her blueberry scones, fruits and other delicious foods as well as the fancy teas. Did I mention she hosts four different themed parties a year for her collectors?! I’m starting to really feel like I’m slacking in my art biz… ha ha. But seriously, I get so many good ideas from Linda.
When I say we, I mean my dad and I. He went along with me to visit Linda. I’ve mentioned before my dad has been an artist all his life. He and Linda hit it off talking about their college experience and also being a professional artist throughout the years.
We all had a great time chatting together. Time went too fast. I would’ve loved to have stayed longer.
Of course I’ll show you the painting I bought. Isn’t it beautiful?! I just love it and it reminds me of the wonderful time I got to spend with my mentor and friend. But let me tell you, it was hard to decide on which painting to pick out.
I have this little beauty displayed where I can see it everyday. Uh… in my bathroom. Ha ha… It sounds bad, but really I can see it everyday there and from the throne no less, ha ha! It’s just beautiful. It’s a casein painting, which means it’s a painting medium made from milk.
Casein medium has been around forever and is very durable I’ve discovered. It’s even been found used in pre-historic cave paintings. Linda uses all different mediums though, like oil, acrylic, watercolor, pencil and more.
Here’s my display because I know you’re dying to see it, right? It’s right at my eye level.
I have a really large bathroom and have this hutch in there. It’s a great place to display other works like my dad’s (the sun paper sculpture on top left), my son’s early art work (bottom center) and even my own (top center).
As we said our good byes, I promised to come back during our next Florida vacation. I’m looking forward to that visit. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could teleport ourselves to anywhere we wanted with just a “beam me up Scotty”?!
Visit Linda here online.
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.
If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, I have a newsletter e-mailed about once a month that gives you special status for invitations, birthday greeting and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!
