Artist
Diane Wigell Bledsoe
~ story and photo by Paige Langenderfer
Diane Wigell Bledsoe has taken a lot of hits in life, but there are two things that have always kept her going: her faith in God and her love of art.
After beating breast cancer twice, Bledsoe now suffers from heart failure as a result of the chemotherapy. She said art is her escape from the pain.
“ The chemo destroyed my heart muscle and forced me to quit working,” she said.“ I have to take it easy, but I can still do my art. It takes me away.”
Bledsoe said she has loved art for as long as she can remember. She describes herself as mostly self-taught.“ I took a semester at the Herron School of Art and quickly realized that school wasn’ t for me,” she said. Her first projects were pen and ink. She quickly mastered the commercial art world, producing logos and promotional materials for various companies in Indianapolis.
While successful, Bledsoe knew something was missing. She wanted to reconnect with her two childhood passions of animals and art. A move to Brown County was just what she needed.
26 Our Brown County July / August 2016
Once settled in her new home, Bledsoe began her career in the fine arts industry by learning a new craft of painting.
“ There’ s a big difference between drawing and painting,” she said.“ I had a lot to learn, but loved seeing the finished pieces.”
Pen and ink gave her work fascinating detail, but painting made her work come alive. Details as small as a twinkle in an eye jumped from the canvas. Her first paintings focused on objects in her life, her horse named Blue and a neighbor’ s cow. She worked tirelessly, learning how to perfect the shadows on a face and the curve of bodies.
Not long into her Brown County career, people began to take notice of her expertise with animals. She painted countless pet paintings, often as a memorial to the animal.
A moment in a local frame shop solidified her spot in the Brown County art world. As she stood at the counter waiting to get a painting of her horse framed, a local artist spoke up from behind her. He told Bledsoe,“ Those are the best eyes I’ ve ever seen.”