Initially trained in photography, Jeffrey Blondes began exploring the tradition of plein aire painting after moving to France in the late 1980s. His attraction to painting outside in all weather afforded him the opportunity to record finite temporal experiences. Today, Blondes still embraces the indeterminism and sensuality of nature. The products of his excursions into the natural world act as containers of his experience and time spent.
Jeffrey Blondes makes high definition videos and printed film-still editions that capture the observable, but often overlooked changes within the natural world. Since 1990, his work has focused on the subtle effects of natural cycles within landscapes and the perception of time. For Blondes, the delicate nuances of time and weather have a powerful impact when placed inside, allowing the viewer to slow down and recognize the importance of the smallest movements that surround us every day. The shooting schedules and locations are frequently timed to record a seasonal or exceptional celestial event in a specific place. Other films are made more spontaneously over the course of a year, near his home in rural France. The films are recorded without sound. However, the mesmerizing imagery can conjure the delicate rustle of aspen leaves or hushed snowfall in the viewer’s imagination. Observing the real-time progression of Blondes’ films gives space for the viewer to connect with the slow rhythms of nature.
A practice of patient observation underpins Blondes’ work irrespective of the medium. In this spirit, he makes printed editions from his videos. These static film stills capture the flow of time within a landscape in compressed form. The framed grids of color are adapted from films Blondes feels produce an arresting network of tones. Unlike Blondes’ films, the viewer does not have to wait to observe changes in the landscape. Rather, time is presented in a coherent frame. Blondes organizes the film image extracts in a system that represents each minute horizontally by every hour vertically. At a distance, the print appears as undulating hues. Up close, each frame sharply captures the elusive changes that occur from one minute to the next. A current of time flows across the stillness of the print as the viewer’s eye moves frame to frame reading it as text, or steps back to take in the full image as one might look at color and light reflected on the water.
Born in Washington, D. C. in 1956, Blondes spent the first half of his life in the US. In 1981, he moved to France where he currently lives and works. The artist’s work is collected both publicly and privately. Past exhibitions include the Centre d’Arts et de Nature, Chaumont-sur-Loire; Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France; Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT; Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY; Bitforms Gallery, New York, NY; David Findlay Jr. Contemporary, New York, NY; Metivier Gallery, Toronto, Canada; Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Hackett- Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA; The Fine Art Society, London, UK; among others. He has completed commission work for a private collection, Wilson, WY; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey and Stanford Arts, Stanford, CA. Blondes artworks are exhibited in hospitals around the world including Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York, NY; John Hopkins, Baltimore, MD and St. Thomas Hospital, London, UK.