On Wearing Different Hats…

Alice: Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
The Mad Hatter: That is an excellent practice.

Being an artist in a rural wilderness area one gets to wear many hats. While it is raining today and I can't really go out to paint or pull weeds out of the gardens, I'll build ads and write press releases for various regional organizations for their summer play bills and flyers that are hopefully effective.

Today is a PR day. Giving back to my own artists community. By giving to the rest of the art community I am helping to build a fragile structure that we all benefit from. I'll spend time on my own events too. This is what it means to have an agent. In the end I am my own best advocate. I'd rather be painting but them's the breaks.

The pressure of deadlines is an interesting phenomenon. The Enterprise waiting for ads, then copy, for their Arts in the Park flyer.  I get visuals going for myself, for my workshops, for the Guild (which I am a member) and for my 6 year old contribution to the artists community - the Artist at Work Studio Tour. Did I mention I am also making a couple of ads for my husbands business?

My partnering workshop in the fall with Tim Fortune is next on the agenda. This is a fun 5 day plein air workshop that Tim and I tag-team, showing artist participants different methods of capturing the Adirondack landscape in pastel, watercolor and oil. The workshop is located at the beautiful White Pine Camp on Osgood Pond in Paul Smiths. Old great camp architecture including a bowling alley and a tea house on a slender glacial esker remnant jutting into the lake offer plenty of perspectives to choose. Five days is a lot of time time work with various personalities and mediums. The learning curve for most is fast and steep. It is very rewarding to see artists move from one place in to another in their work.

Other plein air opportunities for artists are the Saturday Plein Air Painters and two other workshops I will be giving this season: the Pastel Series at the the Hyde Museum in Glens Falls, NY, and Nocturnes Edge Plein Air Workshop.

The Adirondack Artists' Guild has organized plein air Saturdays for regional artists for 6 years running. I find several great venues to paint, we meet around 9 on Saturdays during the summer. Artists from the area bring their medium and work Plein Air in the Adirondack environment. These painting days are reminiscent of the original plein air painters in Europe and the Americas including the Canadian Group of Seven. The camaraderie is part of the process.

The Hyde Museum Pastel Series was initiated with the Adirondack Pastel Society. There are four Tuesdays in July with four different pastel artists incorporating part of the museums collection into a one day workshop revolving around a theme. I am scheduled for July 10. I have not yet narrowed down my theme. It will focus either on Degas and the figure or Plein Air, yesterday and today. Stay tuned.

Nocturnes Edge Plein Air Workshop originates out of my studio Point of View in Gabriels, NY. I have scheduled a five evening workshop spread out over the summer. The participants will first work during a May sunset, then in June, July and August - which includes a Blue Moon - we will have either the moonrise or the sunset to work with. That all depends on the the weathers willingness to cooperate, in which case we will meet at my studio and work on tone, composition and color in the nocturnal view. Homework will be included!

The Artist at Work Studio Tour presented by Saranac Lake Art Works supports the growing artist community of the Northern Adirondacks. A free 3 day tour can take you from Jay to Vermontville, Saranac Lake, Cory's, Lake Placid and to my own neck of the woods - Gabriels and Paul Smiths. Visiting artists in their studios is an eye opener for many people. Others view the tour as an opportunity to get up close and personal with their favorite regional artist and find new work for their collection of Adirondack art. Either way it is a golden time in the Adirondacks to enjoy art and the country side during the fall.

Studio Tour also provides incentive for participating artists to clean up their studio. Tough love. It is beneficial for every one. 

I have procrastinated long enough. Gotta get back to the design page. For more info on my workshops follow me here and check my website. DianeLeifheit.com For other events – oh you know how to find stuff.

Back to work.