Rounding the turn…

Kathy - August 18, 2014

Here is number one hundred three in the Face to Face: Drawn to Saranac Lake project. Kathy was the very first person who contacted me in January. Why not til August? Life has its turns and it was having turns with Kathy this year. But when I say I hear stories from each person I paint, I strongly suspect Kathy hears more stories. Kathy is a florist. Think, "These roses are to be delivered where?"

Another sign of rounding the turn is finally – after 8 months – the funding has landed in my bank account, clearing up some things and allowing me to replenish colors that have worn down to mere nubbins of color. The grant from NYSCA covers only materials, not time, not travel, not the many hats that I have found myself wearing for this project. Costs are higher too than when I first estimated a year ago. It is part of doing business, but in my mind so unnecessary to have had to wait.

As I prepared more square boards for this months paintings I realized I am over halfway towards what is solidifying into the final number in the 160 to 170 range of participants. Folks are making appointments to sit in October and November – it is September after all. I finish up December 12.
Email me.

All of which means I need to knuckle down and begin the printing process for those who have sat for me so far. I am aiming to have a good number of Face to Face portrait prints ready for pick up during Artist at Work Studio Tour, September 27-28, 10 to 5 each day at my studio in Gabriels.

Fresh Paint, on the St. Lawrence

During Studio Tour, there will be lots of paintings on my gallery wall made this year en plein air in the Adirondacks near and far. Yes, I have been busy. Between faces and the landscape I may have made more than 150 works so far this year.

Visiting my studio is a great opportunity to see the work and fall in love with a piece. A purchase of my work does help the project. Consider buying a painting as giving a mini grant and you get to take home a piece of the Adirondacks. It is a whole lot less bookwork for me than applying for a grant too!

First Color, Great Camp Sagamore - Sold

Stay tuned. Though I say I will make the effort to post more often, life does take its turns.

Artliveslong, D

Ketchup!

Mia: Vincent, do you still want to hear my Fox Force Five joke?
Vincent: Sure, but I think I'm still a little too petrified to laugh.
Mia: No, you wont laugh, 'cus it's not funny. But if you still wanna hear it, I'll tell it.
Vincent: I can't wait.
Mia: Three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, Catch up.
Thanks to Pulp Fiction I will try to Catch up.

Six months into Face to Face, I have made 73 faces.  Six more months to go - I suspect there will be at least that many again by mid-December. July spots are all booked. Only a few left for August which I hope will be teachers and kids. I am very happy with the response to the project. It will be a true snapshot of the variety of people drawn to Saranac Lake in 2014.

One feature of Face to Face was the opportunity to record both actors who are in Pendragon Theatres production of RED by John Logan. Burdette, who is Mark Rothko in the show, wanted a before and after. Tyler graciously sat during Saranac Lake's first Third Thursday Art Walk. There are only three performances left then Burdette will gratefully return to to his hirsute self.

Burdette aka Mark Rothko and Tyler

But that's not all. No, not an info-mercial but – Ketchup.

I am participating in two shows which opened this week. Plein Air: An Adirondack Perspective with myself (pastel), Janet-Marie Yeates (oil), Sarah Yoeman (watercolor) and Frances Gaffney (graphite). Four women, four methods of making plein air images in the Adirondacks. It is in the Widlund Gallery at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek NY. Our local public radio station (NCPR) will have a small sampling of the work on line. But nothing takes the place of seeing works up close and live, so head down to North Creek and check out a beautiful visual taste of the Adirondacks while it is up through July 31. We have a reception from 5-7 July 12 to meet the artists. Do come.

The other show is an invitational to explore Lines and Colors. About a dozen North Country artists are exhibiting at Pouring Light Studios in Malone NY. The theme was a retro jump start to produce work that touches on what got each of us involved in making art in the first place using color and line. It is a fun and yummy exhibit. From Karen Davidson's personal explorations in collage to Geoffry Cobb's sly comment on line and color, there are eye opening pieces that engage and challenge the viewer. The exhibit is up until August 9 and is well worth the trip.

That should be enough for one month but there was also an opportunity to help Eric Rhoads' Publisher's Invitational Plein Air Camp in mid- June. I was able to show groups of painters a couple of places to paint close to home, one not on Eric's carefully plotted painting location maps.

Here is finished piece which is hanging in the North Creek exhibit.

Beware. Mosquitoes be here. Plein Air - Pastel -11x14

Then there is the garden, but that would be another story. 

Number 64!

At Compass printing with Karen B.s Face to Face portrait.

#64!

Karen B. sat this week and sent me this shot of her portrait at Compass Printing. Karen is number 64 – two more today.

I will be taking a break next week to participate in a plein air event here. You may see me around and you will see plenty of easels about.

I will be back at Compass Printing the following week, to continue Face to Face. Call, write or email to book a sitting, or stop in at Compass while I am there.

The Mirror Image

Diane - Spring '14 Selfie

Yes this is me. One of my sitters had asked early on if I was doing a portrait of myself. The question jolted me like sticking my finger into an electric socket. I had not given it a thought. Then another sitter – a scientist – asked when I do it, would I turn it around? Another zap.

Here is the answer, with some musings. No I wouldn't turn it around. That would be two mirrors and asking for 14 years of bad luck if I proved less than graceful in my studio, which could be entirely possible. One mirror was enough.

The musing. When I see myself in the mirror what I see is a reverse of the real world. Sure it is what people see in a general way, but the reality is I do not see myself ever the way others do. I look and think of how I look from the moment I first peer in the mirror in the morning to the last time at night, brushing my teeth, as a mirror image.  That is a lot of time working on the reverse image in my head, don't you think? We all do that.

When I make a Face to Face portrait of a person, I am not seeing what their own perception of their own face is, what their mental image was from that morning.  I am working from what I see, not a mirror image.

Does that change how someone reacts to seeing their portrait after being worked on for two hours? I suspect that is a bit of it.

There are other factors. 

Making a portrait in a couple of hours with talk and other distractions is akin to live theatre. Kids want to wiggle, people want to talk, the body wants to be in motion. Some have other things on their mind and are not in the moment. It can be me too, not finding the right color, a bad start to a morning, "a piece of bad potato." Live theatre is no different, every performance is a little different,  timing on or not; a dropped line or all in perfect sequence.

After a couple of hours have gone by in the process of making a portrait, I feel like the person is looking at me from two places – the work and the person. About that time I feel I am real close to the raw but finished piece and I let the sitter look at it. Sit where I have been sitting and look at the image, I say.

This is the moment of truth for me. For the most part I have worked hard to catch the person in the painting, the essence, not every flaw or wrinkle (not enough time), but the person who has chosen to share a couple of hours with me to talk, listen and let me see them.  

I am learning, it doesn't always work. Sometimes that person just doesn't "see" themselves in the work. Hear the sound of the pin prick in the balloon?

I think some of that reaction, is the reality of how we see ourselves, mostly in reverse. Then maybe too I just haven't quite gotten who is there. That will happen.

I promise to always do my best to capture the essence of the person across from me. From there, I work on making best better.

How many do you know?

The Tyranny of a Full Moon in April.

Easter will arrive two Sundays from now.

I have returned from my sojourn in much warmer and sunnier climes. It is now mud season in the Adirondacks, and Easter as mentioned before, is two Sundays from now. What's with that and just what does in mean for my Face to Face project? I can't be certain but in Saranac Lake it will mean two things: one can land an airplane on Main Street for Easter vacation. The other is - maybe one cannot - if the Village has its way. (Think major road repair.)

What about Easter and the moon? - one says scratching the head perplexed. Easter has been pledged by the powers that be, to arrive only on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Consequently school is out and half the population of Saranac Lake is in Florida for the next two weeks. Next year Easter will fall on April 5. Pretty fickle if you ask me.

Bad timing for setting a time to meet Face to Face or maybe just yes, you do want come in and sit. Get away from the muddy driveway, the yard detritus that will need to be taken care of sooner or later, washing the windows to see, yep its mud season out there. Parking is easy because the population has migrated for a couple of weeks and the promised start to road work has been pushed back. So yeah it could be a good thing.

This is my convoluted thinking for April. 

Arnie - February 18

I have sittings starting Tuesday next week for Face to Face.
Call, email or stop in Tuesday, Thursday or Friday and pick a time. Sit for a couple of hours and you will be part of the project. You will get a full size reproduction of the portrait and bragging rights that you participated in Face to Face.

Hillary _ February 24

Spring Break!

Ha spring indeed. We have taken off for warmer climes. It was no mean feat either. The plan was fly out of Saranac Lake Wednesday morning, catch the plane to Mexico in Boston, travel, etc. Adirondack weather decided otherwise. No planes flew out of SL Wednesday OR Thursday. Motivated by the cold and reservations, we pondered options Wednesday and chose to drive in the worst messy snow imaginable to Boston to catch the plane to Mexico Thursday am. Passed several unfortunate drivers on the way. Then it turned to rain after Albany. Home free. Overnight with Son and his wife and took off - late I might add, for deicing, around 10:30 Thursday and we are now here. Ta da!
Sunshine. Mmm.
You can check out a painting I did here a couple of years ago on my website. Hotel el Meson. When travelling not everything is as facile to pop in images with iPad, so you will have to go look there.

Bumbling through a Cold

Having a cold that has made me sit still so I will catch up. There are 22 faces captured. One of them,  Karen asked, "What about you?" Of course I will have to do that. Just had not thought about it. Then realized probably at least a couple of them. If not once a month at least every other.

So much for internalizing. Cold medicine is a task master gone awry.

Here are a couple more faces.

Mary Jan. 28

Fred Feb. 25