Jim Blanchard

Jim Blanchard is a contemporary topographical artist known for his architectural watercolors of historic Louisiana buildings. A native son of Lafourche Parish in South Louisiana, he was raised amid the aging plantations and vernacular 19th century architecture of the region. After moving to New Orleans in the early 1980s, Blanchard turned his full attention to creating artworks based on the region's architectural history. Using ink, watercolor and gouache as his primary medium, he depicted the grand buildings of the past with the precision of an architect, the integrity of a historian, and the hand of a master watercolorist. Eschewing the romanticism of decay so often embraced by contemporary artists, Blanchard depicts these buildings in their original glory, often adding figures in period costume for both scale and context. Calling them "architectural archival watercolors" for their precise scale and historical accuracy, Blanchard's works exist as both architectural renderings and topographical history paintings. In the tradition of the great 19th century architect and painter, Marie Adrien Persac, the paintings of Jim Blanchard combine history, aesthetic and skill to create a visual document that is both accurate and idealized. Through these works, grand homes rise from the ashes of the past, crumbling facades are restored, and faded images glow with the color of life.