"Promise" - A record in time.

"Promise" pastel 20x24

The day was warm and muggy. Early morning the clouds were thick and low. It was the big tree on the fence line that had captured my attention. The field had recently been hayed and wild flowers were returning. As the painting evolved so did the weather. The light became more yellow as the clouds began to rise. Just as I was getting to done for the morning St. Regis mountain appeared in the distance. It had to be in there.

"Promise" is one of my favorite works. It is what plein air is about, capturing a point in time, a record of nature. The tree has since succumbed to the green ash borer. Inside of 2 years it has turned into a pen and ink drawing etched against the sky. There are some things one cannot do anything about.

"Promise" is in exhibit "Under Adirondack Influence" thanks to Sacandaga Valley Arts Network at the Northville Public Library now through the end of August. It's a good day trip or even an overnight. Check out Northville on the lake and maybe camp along Indian Lake.

Do call for library hours and when you get there ask for the lights and air to be turned on. Enjoy!

Northville Public Library                    
341 South Third Street
Northville, NY 12134
518-863-6922            
http://www.svanarts.org/arts.htm22

'Tis the Season... for Day Lilies

Summer Trumpets pastel 28x38

"Summer Trumpets" was great fun to paint. How many times can I get into the yellow spectrum in the pastel box and get away with it? The lilies were willing posers - capturing sunshine and breezes, bowing in the summer heat. What a great way to warm up a space.

"Summer Trumpets" is in the exhibition "Under Adirondack Influence" with over two dozen pastel paintings of the Adirondacks and beyond at the Northville Public Library, just south of Wells in the Adirondacks. A reception is being held July 19 from 6-8 and everyone is welcomed.  Call for library hours. 518-863-6922

Yes that is tomorrow. Stop deadheading your lilies and come see these. They never need deadheading!

"Under Adirondack Influence"

Been slowly gather a collection of work to exhibit for the Sacandaga Valley Arts Network in the Northville Library.  "Under Adirondack Influence" will contain a majority of works that have been made "en Plein Air" in the Adirondacks and work that was made outside of the Blue Line but still reflects where Adirondack understanding of light and dark, and subject matter - which influences the images. Full disclosure, there is work made in near the St. Lawrence River, in the Finger Lakes, Cape Cod, the garden, the studio.

Where actual work is first made or conceived is not relevant to the work. What is, is where I live, in the Adirondacks, that has influenced how I see my subject matter. Light is the biggest consideration in making a composition. Dark compliments light, bringing definition and life to compositions. Light evokes air, wind and temperature. It is not a small thing there is only one winter scene in this exhibit. Winter is a dark time in the Adirondacks. Light is a different color in winter. Temperature certainly has plenty to do with the lack of winter scenes as working in pastel is a frozen knuckle/fingertip event which is simply not working for these particular fingers any more.

"Overrun" 16x20 pastel on the dark side of the barn

 Visualizing the works to be exhibited together is fearful and exciting at the same time. Most of an artists life is spent in close contact with one piece at a time. Working to assemble pieces to be next to each other in a group creates a different view of the work vs. how an artist sees work in the privacy of the studio. The goal is to create an interaction between pieces that translates to the viewer.

The viewer of "Under Adirondack Influence" can become a participant in the process making of an Adirondack grouping of works. The opportunity to look into the woods, across a field and almost smell the flowers in the garden will entertain the viewer with each story a piece offers. 

 "Under Adirondack Influence" opens July 1 exhibiting through August 29, 2016. A reception will be held Tuesday, July 19 from 6-8. I am looking forward to meeting everyone.

"A Day Better Than This?" 12x22 pastel shadows on near mountains

"Fresh Paint" 11x14 pastel feeling the heat and wind

Hours at the library are:
Monday, Saturday 9 - Noon
Tuesday 9 am - 8 pm
Wednesday, Thursday 9 am - 4 pm
Friday 9 am - 4 pm



Northville Public Library
341 South Third Street
Northville, NY 12134
518-863-6922
Sacandaga Valley Arts Network www.svan.org

There is a list for that.

Moka is ready to go.

Gardening list. Shorter - since it rained an inch and a half. Check

Dog to the vet appointment. Check

Pack art for trip to Glens Falls for Adirondack National Pastel Exhibit. Check

Pack for Sacandaga Valley Arts Network exhibit. Huh?

There is a list for that. Just over 30 pastel paintings will face bubble wrap and snug surroundings next week for a trip to Northville Public Library opening July 1 - August 28. Listed, priced, recorded - but now need the jpg to follow so that more PR can be sent to various outlets like Dale at NCPR and the Facebook page. The postcard will be following too, to announce the reception on July 19, 6-8 for the exhibit "Under Adirondack Influence".  Everyone is invited!

Somewhere near Canandaigua

All this on the heels of a week in the Finger Lakes painting in the Canandaigua area. Nope those paintings are not in "Under Adirondack Influence" Sign up for The Thumbprints Newsletter to see those. 

Or stop at the studio. Hours are up at DianeLeifheit.com

Then there is the new frame list, the grocery list, the "Where in the world is Face to Face?" list, the "Convergence of Pastel" list, the pay-the-bills list (uck). 

Where is that intern???

Oh never mind.

Do you have a gardening brain?

Here it is the middle of May and Sunday it snowed on my tulips and daffodils. What does that do to my gardening philosophy? What is the philosophy anyway?

"Gardening brain" - the ability to act on the details that need to be looked after, so the big picture can emerge. 

Planting a seed or a bulb is really an act of faith that is rewarded maybe 9 times out of 10 by a carrot, a great salad, or a daffodil. There are constant tests and chores involved in continuing success in the endeavor of North Country gardening. Through the seasons the tests change; recognizing that violets tend to behave like weeds and want to choke out other perennials; that a batch of day lilies that needed rescuing once has turned virulent and are spreading into other patches of plants that have no manifest destiny in mind; are a couple of tests that come to mind. Being proactively tidy, not OCD tidy, but keeping after the creeping weed that wants to shrink the borders of the vegetable garden and then disposing of weeds far away from the garden - in a compost that reduces the weeds inborn survival instincts - is all part of the gardening brain. Feeding the earth with good compost and supplements needed in North Country earth contributes to thriving veggies and flowers. At the end of the day the relation to the garden is - when the garden is thriving with a minimum of rowdy takeovers, then the rest of life seems to follow in the same pattern.

What does that have to do with work in the studio or plein air work? Opportunity favors the prepared mind. There is a kitschy phrase for this idea that that may be accredited to Picasso. In the studio work surfaces are left clear and ready to work for fresh return the next day. Boards are prepared for travel. Pastels need cleaning and are remade by crushing the little pieces back into dust then mixed with water to form a new stick large enough to use again. New frames need to be ordered and glass too. New pieces are worked up. The critical eye is engaged to step back and ask what does the work need to make it sing? Decisions about when a work is a "weed", taking up time and space where a other piece has better chance in coming to life are made. Not every thing works; not everything is a "master piece". Being prepared does favor good outcomes.

Fortunately it does not snow in the studio at inappropriate times. Once in a while heat takes a holiday but for the most part what is worked on there in the studio is about being prepared to move, to paint, to get out in the field to paint.

So the gardening brain is about a degree of preparedness and maintenance that allows for growth and repose, as it is also in the studio and in the field for plein air.

Artliveslong, D

Drawing for the Time-Crunched Question

Whew! I just finished giving a class - Drawing Studio Workshop for the Time-Crunched, at Lake Placid Center for the Arts

I have been listening for years to folks say they couldn't do a class on one particular night or another and came up with this crazy idea of giving everyone an option for when they could come. The set up was four weeks, two nights a week, choice of 4 or 8 days.

The first class was very full; five tables were set up for people to draw. About half of the participants, different every night, showed up for the balance of the course. What I ended up covering was fun and interesting. The course work did not depend on whether one had been there sequentially. Every night built up the participants ability to draw.

So I am wondering, was the very full class a one time thing or would there be a good chance it could fill again in the fall 2016 or winter 2017?

Let me know.

Send me your reply and I will send you a Leifheit art card.

 For your free Leifheit art card contact me here: deleifheit@gmail.com

Arenal, a volcano waiting

First view of Arenal

 Arenal Volcano stands tall in in an other wise level landscape in Costa Rica. It is a quiet volcano having last been smoking and spewing in 2010. In terms of time I consider that a nat's eyebrow, quiet vs. dormant. Arenal is one of a string of volcanos in the "Belt of Fire", one of which was blowing it's stack near San Jose, CR, during our stay last year. We sat on a Pacific coast beach when the earth began to move and tremble for about 2 minutes. The earth is very active in Costa Rica.

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica  - the March calendar painting

This painting was made early in the morning on the spot last year. The air was alive with birds - toucans, tanagers, parrots. Later that morning we headed to the park of Arenal and took the trail to the edge of the volcanic detritus, black stone shaped in liquid forms. At the edges where green is climbing back up the volcano, there were daffodil like orchids growing out of near nothing.  Where the lava stopped 6 years ago, the jungle changed from low growing to monstrous trees with girths of 50 feet around. Wild life was overhead and underfoot. Toucans peered down from the palms above then clattered off. Lovely leaf green lizards basked on ground level in the sun dappled leaves. Walking slowly we saw a large bird feeding in the brush, then two more just quietly browsing; though they were all the same family, each had different plumage. One all black; another spotted, barred; and another barred with a russet tail. What would Darwin say?
 

A tree of substantial girth

In 5 years the jungle returns to the volcano.

Fun to think about when snow covered ice surrounds my house right now.

Another volcano in the Belt of Fire