Studio Tour, Cookies, Mountains and Faces.

Here is the "Birds Eye View" from the Wild Walk in Tupper Lake. This 12x28 piece has been framed and ready to be seen tomorrow during Artist at Work Studio Tour.

Bird's Eye View

And a dose of faces from Face to Face. As usual I'm asking if anyone knows every one in the group. Let me know! Help out the framing by going clicking here: https://adirondackgives.org/campaigns/face-face-drawn-saranac-lake-lets-get-framed/#backers

Yes I will have cookies. The oven is preheating as I write. Tour is 10-5 tomorrow, Saturday, July 25 or you can check my website for weekly hours.

I am heading out to Morristown for a Plein Air event to benefit Morristown Library this coming week. The big river is a sight there and Amish are everywhere. Looking forward to just painting.

PS. I have a very nervous Pheobe who took over a Robins nest on my porch. She is going to be upset all day. Her clutch has finally hatched. She has just not gotten used to us walking on the porch.

How Not to Procrastinate - Allegedly.

Who knows all these folks? They are some of the very earliest sitters for Face to Face.

So there a a qazillion cool tools on the inter-web,  as Chris calls it - to set up schedules and announce events, calculate exercise and calorie intake. The list goes on… The one that got me is the tool counting down to November 12, 2015. 114 days to go til Face to Face opens in the library.

There are 48 days to go til the end of the online Adirondack Gives campaign that has been set up to help fund framing all 185 faces. It is 27% funded as of this particular moment.
 https://adirondackgives.org/campaigns/face-face-drawn-saranac-lake-lets-get-framed/

I have lost track of how many people have stopped at my studio to pick up their gift for sitting last year - a full size digital portrait print for each person who sat for two hours - plus or minus.

Still early in the framing, there are 22 framed today - only 165 more to frame.

Stats and numbers are not my forte. I hate doing books but I am good at framing and designing a space to hang art. I do like schedules so this cool little tool telling me that there are 114 days left is a great prod for me to keep at the frame work.

"Yeah but you're writing right now. What's with that?" you say.

Good question.

This coming Saturday, July 25, is the first Last Saturday Artist at Work Studio Tour for 2015. Come visit an artist at work. Pick up your portrait print. See some plein air work of the area. Marvel at how much space 185 frames takes up.

AND… If you cannot make it Saturday check my website. The front page has studio hours posted weekly - http://dianeleifheit.com/

113 and 1/2 days to go…

Zigi's Exhibit or what I do on the side

     When I walked into the LPCA gallery late Monday afternoon I realized I was not prepared for the job that awaited me. Art had arrived from Zigi Ben-Haim for exhibit wrapped in tons of bubble wrap and sheets of heavy plastic. Three 7-foot sculptures were standing uncermoniously in the space. The young man who delivered the work from New York City pointed out some tips for handling of the work. He was anxious to take off back to the city.

     I unwrapped a couple of pieces. It become obvious this would not be a classic hanging of paintings. The majority of pieces are on custom aluminum frames and not wired to hang. It would be a balancing act between two nails to hang most pieces. The bubble level would be indispensable.

     More interesting to me though was the work itself. As the installer for the art I have looked at Zigi's work for the last two days — longer than anyone will for the duration of the exhibit with perhaps exception of the box office staff.

     While the work was still in plastic I was really not sure of what I was looking at. But the process of unwrapping and hanging revealed an interesting exhibit of current works by a renowned artist. The work is like a shape shifter: first you see one thing - then another. Organic shapes move literally and figuratively in aluminum, canvas, burlap, hardware cloth, light, shadow and paint.
 

Zigi Ben-Haim: Made in the USA - at Lake Placid Center for the Arts

      The largest piece - 80 inches by 144 inches - was hung first. Standing back from it I saw it would provide the viewer with recognizable icons providing a culmination or primer, depending on ones point of view, for the rest of the exhibit.

     Zigi's work is not anything like the work I do but by being so close to the work for the three-day installation, I found it was an eye opener, providing an appreciation of another artists process and conceptualization of work. It is definitely worth a visit to the gallery for art enthusiasts and regional artists.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." — Ferris

Four huge boxes of frames on the porch at 815 SR86  site of the studio

It took most of the morning but I got this pile o' frames into my studio and can still walk around in it! They are stashed (?) in three areas.

Thank goodness they will end up living elsewhere in 123 days. Why?, you say, are you counting days? Well it seems like a good impetus to keep my focus on what is a very repetitive job. I do enjoy each painting as I am framing it so it is not without benefits.

Meantime summer seems to have arrived with all it's insane busy-ness. The discipline needed to shrug all obligations to family and framing and go out and paint would seem hard to come by. My eyes are compelling me to go out and get that view. Summer is so ethereal and very short here.

Must take advantage of the day.

PS Mark K. piggy-backed a small frame order with this company.  Just a comparison.

Faces and a Wild Walk

Here are 4 people who participated in Face to Face: Drawn to Saranac Lake. Do you know who they are? Three I never met before they came to sit for me. I will post more later this week. You will receive one of my art cards if you get it right.

Meantime: Here is a mini  – the first little painting made on the Wild Walk during members week last Thursday before it rained - yet again.

 Birds' Eye View from the Wild Walk - Mini plein air pastel 4x8

I also just finished the large painting I started there. It will be posted in my Thumbprints Newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter on my website, www.dianeleifheit.com

The large piece looks different from the mini. But they both are about what till now was only the birds point of view.

It was interesting listening to visitors commenting on the view there, "O there's Whiteface!" and "There is Mt. Morris." It made me realize if one lives in town, any town, it takes an effort to get out and see that one lives in the mountains. I get to see the ranges all the time. From where I live the ride to town and back is the best in the Adirondacks.

The view was to the East here. The clouds ploughed in from the west, devouring the broken promise of blue skies. Had to wrap everything up quick. No cover on the Wild Walk.

The Wild Walk is an amazing structure – all handicap accessible. Go check it it out sometime.