Richard Bledsoe “Plein Air” acrylic on canvas 24″ x 30″
In painting, Plein Air is an idiom, borrowing a French term that refers to an artwork created outside.
The term is closely associated with the Impressionist painters of the late 1800s. The invention of paint in tubes made painting on location easier. The Impressionists were known for their landscapes, rapidly painted outdoors, capturing the ever-shifting effects of natural light.
My painting “Plein Air” is a different matter altogether.
The exterior depicted is the world of the mind, the landscape of the imagination.
It was painted slowly in my studio. The space is inner space, and the shifting light came from within.
For an intuitive artist, every painting is a self portrait. This work took that more literally, the artist as stand in for universal man.
As per my usual method, I did not directly use source material in the studio-I did not look into a mirror while painting. I would look in a mirror in another room, then go to the canvas to paint what I remembered. These are my own features filtered through my consciousness.
A good thing about making a self portrait: the model was always available when needed.
Making a painting becomes more than just a matter of how to
represent something. It symbolizes the artist’s engagement with life.
We want so much to make an image that says, “This is who I am, and
this is what I saw.”-Richard Bledsoe, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization
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Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience
My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.
Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART
Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.
Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!
THE REMODERN REVIEW 
The act of transferring what’s inside of you to something that someone else would understand is one of the most difficult things on earth to do. Technique can help, but in essence is a separate thing.
There are no words for it
Off Topic: I’ve seen Elizabeth’s funeral and I saw Churchill’s.
Wow, that is an amazing range of history you witnessed!
A very nice way to say “you’re old”!
I prefer “vintage!”