“Energy Made Manifest”: Art on Sports, Competition and Unity by Heather Blanton

“My work is energy made manifest. The human spirit thriving on excellence only brought through competition. They are celebrations of the human spirit and the will to win,” says Heather Blanton, a painter originally from Jacksonville and now based in St. Augustine, Florida.

Heather’s art consists of a mixture of densely packed marathons and minimal, single lines of runners. People race away to glory, in focus and with persistence. The purpose here is just to display that physical and psychological urge in humankind to perform and succeed. The paintings, the artist points out, do not make any big statement about “social concerns” or “inner problems”.

Heather Blanton

What made Heather choose sports and fitness as subjects? She explains: “I would not call myself an athlete. I do not run, have never been on a racing bike, or participated in many of the sports I paint. Why then sports? I feel drawn to the color of the cyclists racing kits (uniforms), to the way sports is without language or cultural barriers. It always amazed me how a football could bring people together, how love of a team brings people together and the whole phenomenon of sports in our world be it Olympics, professional teams or hobbyists.”

Fond of Camille Pissarro, Charles Cobelle, and other Impressionist artists, Heather likes to create a push and pull between abstraction and realism. In the studio, she is drawn to Classical music and Operas. She studied art at the University of North Florida and The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She began her career with photography but later, when it became too technical for her, switched to painting.

Heather’s work has been part of nearly 50 exhibitions and can be found in public and private collections around the globe from Amsterdam and Atlanta to Manhattan and Miami. She has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets and continues to work as the conduit to capture her client’s passions of skiing, cycling, golfing, horse racing, and everything in between.

Links: Website (www.heatherblanton.com) | Facebook (www.facebook.com/heatherblantonfineart) | Saatchi Art (www.saatchiart.com/heatherblantonfineart) | Twitter (@heatherblanton7)

Images used with permission.

 

“Marathon on Light Blue” (2017), acrylic and pencil on canvas 33x66x1 in.

 

“Minimal Line of Skiers” (2017), acrylic and pencil on canvas 18x66x3 in.

 

“Cyclists with Purple” (2016), acrylic and graphite on canvas 12x36x1.5 in.

 

“Abstract Cyclists” (2017), acrylic and pencil on canvas 4x12x1.5 in.

 

“Polished Silver Cycle Race” (2016), acrylic on canvas 48x24x1.5 in.

 

“Triathlon VII” (2016), acrylic and graphite on canvas 3-12x36x1.5 in.

 

“Cyclists with Orange” (2016),  acrylic and chalk, graphite and wax 48x48x1.5 in.

 

“Swimmers in Pool” (2015), acrylic and pencil on canvas 36x36x1.5 in.

 

“Zen Marathon” (2014),  acrylic and charcoal on birch wood 24x16x2.5 in.

 

“Skiers with White” (2013), acrylic on canvas 40x40x1.5 in.

 

“Marathon on White” (2017), acrylic and pencil on canvas 2-24x48x1.5 in.

 

“Nostalgic Aerial Marathon” (2014), acrylic and charcoal on canvas 36x48x1.5 in.

 

“Golfers” (2015), acrylic and graphite on canvas 36x36x1.5 in.

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Published by Tulika Bahadur

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