ABOUT ELEANOR BLAIR
Eleanor Blair graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City in 1969. She moved to Gainesville in 1971 and has been painting Central Florida scenes since that time. She is a well-known member of the Florida art community; This year, her paintings are featured on both the Gainesville Downtown Festival poster, and the WUFT-FM poster. Her artwork is in museums and many corporate and private collections.
Landscape is my primary subject, because of its universal appeal, and because I like having an excuse to spend time outdoors in beautiful places around the world. But inspiration comes to me randomly and unexpectedly, in my day-to-day life. Then I’m glad I’m a painter, so I can paint that.
- Eleanor Blair
Blair painting en plen aire
Enjoying the Florida landscape up close
ARTIST STATEMENT
I search for beauty in the natural world and in everyday things. I work primarily in oil, from life and from my photographs. I love to see how light transforms objects and places, and to capture that transformation in paint. We have all had those moments; a fleeting trick of light, a sentimental subject, a random combination of shapes and shadows, and we are transported; in the presence of beauty. It might be a glimpse of something seen in the rear-view mirror silhouetted against the cloudy sky ahead, or the glow of unexpected color through a backlit object. It could be dishes in the sink, or your feet popping up through the suds at the opposite end of the tub. Moments when you say, “oh I wish I was a painter, so I could paint that!” My work celebrates those moments, intimate and universal, that remind us that there is beauty in the world, all around us, and everywhere.