Description
Image size: 6.0 X 5.2 inches. Signed in pencil & annotated "2/250", printed on heavy, fine-grained, white wove paper, 10 X 7 inch sheet. Published by C.F.A. Corp, with their embossed seal at lower left corner. Fine condition. Free shipping to US address. (nt bx-k4) Note: Judith Bledsoe embodies the romantic artist's life most people experience only in dreams. The high-spirited daughter of a classical violinist, she grew up in California brimming with ideas. From her earliest days, Bledsoe was a seeker, yearning to live intensely in a suitable environment for a burgeoning creative soul. "I had no choice but to become an artist. I always drew & painted, & also wrote as a child. I made mythological things, stories, some atavistic things & strange faces." Like many gifted & restless spirits, Bledsoe knew her artistic ambitions were outgrowing the town, & even the country of her youth. She needed history, splendor, pageantry. The alluring pull of the Continent proved too strong to resist. The artist fled to Europe at 16, craving experience & artistic freedom. While lesser spirits may have been daunted by such a bold leap, Bledsoe was enthralled with the beauty of the art all around her. in Paris, she was able to absorb, adapt, & ultimately create her own joyous vision of life. She also began her lifelong love affair with printmaking. For several years she worked with the Imprimerie Nationale de France, the official print shop of France, & was later given the honor of creating "The Spirit of the Print Shop," the official lithograph of this organization. Bledsoe herself describes printmaking as " a fatal malady & quite incurable. (It is) a fascination & a joy, which I find more & more exciting & I love the hand press & the big flat machine & the atmosphere of the print shop." in an age when all is calculation & deliberate effect, Judith Bledsoe is, & has always been, inextricably linked with her art. She did not have to create a form of art; she has always lived it. Her world, the people in the Parisian streets, the cats frolicking outside her house, the stories she created as a childall of these are interpreted & effortlessly transformed into paintings, prints, sculptures, & collages. Indeed, she has often felt overwhelmed after walking around the city on a particularly beautiful day, when the richness & multiplicity of subjects for painting seemed unending. For Judith Bledsoe, everything around her has a story to tell. This depth of feeling & sensitivity permeates all of Bledsoe's work, whether the subject is the joys of human friendship or the persistent bonds of memory. Suffused with the glow of everyday happiness, works by the artist transcend our traditional notions of daily livingthey offer hope, spontaneity & limitless potential. Judith Bledsoe's works are to be lived with, reflected upon, & cherished. "Judith Bledsoe's delicious oeuvre exemplifies a great truth about the art of figurative painting: representation is idea, color is emotion.
