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I started painting as a child at about 8 years old. I had a horse club and we met in the spare room at my house. We spent our time drawing horses and painting them with tempera and watercolor.

In high school I graduated to oil paints. I set up a garret studio in my home attic. I fancied myself as one of the French Impressionists and imagined that I lived in Paris, sitting in cafes. I insisted in painting from life, borrowing things from my Mother’s refrigerator to use as still life objects. I often left them past their prime and the odors were horrible, much to my Mother's dismay.

In art school I studied painting and drawing and was a drawing major. At that time we all fancied ourselves to be Existentialists, though we had not idea what that meant. We wore black everywhere and drank gallons of coffee.

The following painters influenced my early work, including Joe Testa Secca, Hans Hoffman, Francis Bacon, Anders Zorn, John Singer Sargent, Edward Manet, Camille Pissaro,Gilbert Demeza, Jim Dine, Alex katz, Wayne Thiebaud, Hiram Williams, and Vermeer.

These days I'm a bit older and far more practical in my approach to painting. My focus is on the Southern Landscape. I treasure the heritage of the South and strive to record those places dear to me. I have spent the last two years working on a series about Florida Rivers.

My painting process includes several different steps. I do hundreds of studies every year for larger works. I paint on location, especially in the fall and spring, using these small painting to record information for larger studio paintings. I study a variety of disciplines in painting, including values, color theory, Notan, and composition. I use several mediums, including watercolor, oils, gouache, casein, and acrylics.

I am excited by the landscape and all of its mysteries. From the North Carolina Mountains to the deep swamps of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, I love them all and it is privilege to record them on canvas.

Creating original paintings is my life's work. Recording the land I love so much from the depth of my soul is my gift. When you own an original painting by an artist who truly understands and loves the subject they paint, you have something precious and rare, that no one else will ever have.

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Award winning painter, Linda Blondheim lives in Gainesville, Florida and works primarily in oils and acrylics.

Linda is a listed artist with artprice.com, askart.com, The American Artist Bluebook, and Marquis Who's Who in American Art 2007, marquiswhoswho.com . She has a museum history in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and is gallery represented in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

Her work is often described as painterly realism,or representational painting. Sometimes she is referred to as a representational expressionist or American impressionist.

She enjoys plein air painting almost year round because of the mild Florida climate, but enjoys traveling throughout the south to capture the beauty found in each state. Most of Linda's work is done en plein air, but she does enjoy working from plein air studies to complete larger works in the studio. Her paintings are found in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

Linda earned a BFA from the University of Tampa, and has been painting for 30 years. She is a member of Plein Air Florida, Florida Artist Group, Inc., Southern Ladies Art Conference, Southern Artist League, International Plein Air Painters, New York State Plein Air Painters, American Society of Landscape Painters, Landscape Artists International, and Fresh Air.