What's with the Trucks?

"Toys Awaiting Boys II" February painting for 2016 calendar

"Toys Awaiting Boys II"  is the second time I approached this subject matter. Same spot, different arrangement, one character is missing or out playing. One of these trucks was really red the first time around. Now it is faded pink. What kind of paint was used, I wondered.

Each vehicle has its own character, a lot like Don the farmer who stopped by on his little John Deer while I was painting that day. "I'm 99 years old.", he told me that day, "Not long now."  Wasn't sure of that. Later, sure enough, his daughter-in-law disavowed his claim, "He's 89." One never knows about stories made during a painting. But in that moment, Don was 99.

That was a windy day. My shade umbrella was pulled inside out. That makes things tricky as far as seeing color. Bright days are a bit of a hazard for me. I cover up head to toe and use the umbrella to shade the work so direct light does not glare onto it and the pastels. The umbrella limped along for the rest of the season but will need to be replaced for the 2016 season of plein air.

****

"Toys Awaiting Boys I" sold to someone who had to have it because it made her smile. She had come back into the gallery a second time to purchase it and it was GONE! Sold, she was told.

Disappointed, but not discouraged, she wrote me to find out if she could get a print.

Sure I said and started the process of printing the work.

Then another email. "Wait! I just found out - my husband bought the painting for a Christmas present!" she wrote. Ha! What fun. He felt he had to tell her.

Needless to say I didn't make the print sale that day but the work went to the right person.

Back in the Studio

Happy New Year to all!

To celebrate here is the first piece in the 2016 calendar.  Yes the weather outside is frightful but I find hope in featuring flowers at this time of year.  This batch of tulips begged for the aqua vase and spring light illuminated them. I am not convinced electronic viewing does it any justice.

Getting back into the studio this week, I've been working on a still life started a couple of months ago. Inspired from a workshop from 3 years ago, the color and light has me thinking warm thoughts.

The last piece from 2015 is Grapes and Roses. The unusual juxtaposition of the roses caught me. The sculptural quality of the leaves dipping in and out of space and light yet tethered to the vines unseen pulled me into the work.

Let it snow.

For one reason or another… and best reason.

Some where in September I started a painting. I'd been waiting for the right day to go to South Creek, a favorite place of mine, to catch the color.

Meantime I was framing Face to Face like crazy and with some help from my friends Jeanne and Shawn. It got finished in October. I basically have missed the tiny window for Adirondack Autumn which was very slow in coming this year, very Slow.

The business end of this huge art project has been nearly all consuming. The painting of South Creek is on my easel waiting, tempting and scolding me. It will be there for a bit as the Face to Face exhibit will come down next week for one reason. For another wresting the studio into a holiday flavor for the next 3 Sunday Open Studios is on the agenda.

Then most important–my grand boy was born on November 29. He needs some grama time though I am pretty sure it is me needing grand boy time. Travel, holidays, family, life is full.

Here is a piece of work made in September, a challenge for myself. The color of the wild apples in the the ceramic bowl pulled me out of the kitchen, into the pastel box.

This little painting and others are available at the Holiday Open Studio Sundays December 6, 13, 20 12 -5 at my studio in Gabriels. Stop in to see it up close. Cider and cookies too, a small thank you for my friends and patrons.

Best of the Holidays to All!

Tick, tock. Tick, tock…

Barrie wrote the croc as a she. Hmm…

" I suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? Time is chasing after us all."
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

There. It is official. Standard time arrived at 4:59 am. Digital clocks corrected.

The Project wakes me,  roaring with to-dos. Tea, and stream of conscious listing. The ten day countdown begins tomorrow. Posters, postcards, pr, labels, signage, reception, installation, lighting, bodies - need bodies.

Other life: cat asks for breakfast - she doesn't care what time it is. The bowl is empty. Dishes away. Tea is hot.

Back to roaring lists. Writing smooths it out. Schedule bills now - can't think about them later and won't give them the satisfaction of a late charge just because Life is going pretty fast this month. Ads for now, ads for later, calendar - finish-order, print more posters, exhibit design, list participants, backers, history, future.

Oh yes, laundry.

Standard time gave me an extra hour today as ephemeral as autumn. It is evaporating with the steam of the tea. To work.

Room to Move, Then Tetris

This is ninety Portraits.

I found the floor in my studio! For about two months the portraits have been carefully stacked front-to-front, back-to-back on the rug, accumulating mass and floor space as they were framed.

The portraits are all now in their boxes, numbered, labeled, except for one. Somehow this one did not seem to find it's correct box and I kept running across it as I methodically packed the others, ten to a box in consecutive order. It kept me company for the whole process. "What are you doing still out Dylan?", I finally asked it. Studio time is quiet.

Keep it simple right? So this one will have to find it's place later today as I finish that job up. Whew.

Onto PR, posters, postcards, mailing, lists, emails.

Most important though is laying out the space for the installation. It will be like playing Tetris with 185 portraits. How many on this wall, then the next. Spacing, grouping, breathing room. Then there will be less cause for panic when the boxes actually arrive in the Cantwell Room and the portraits take their assigned places on the walls.

Other News

The Adirondack Gives On Line Campaign went over the top two days a head of schedule. Big Thanks to all 36 backers and the many backers who also contributed off line. Face to Face could not be done without you all.
Just so you know, if you are still considering backing the project – and I hope you are if you have not already done so – tax deductible contributions can be made to Face to Face, care of Pendragon Theatre, 15 Brandybrook Avenue, Saranac Lake, NY 12983

Face to Face: Drawn to Saranac Lake
Opening November 12- December 7 
Reception November 12, 3-6pm
Saranac Lake Free Library
All Are Welcome!

Stayed tuned.
Artliveslong, Diane

Yellow Day

Yellow light til the end

The leaves in the 'Dacks have gone to yellow and gold, particularly in my yard. The light early this morning filled the rooms of the house with yellow even though it was still overcast. I took advantage of the day to tend to the garden - get it ready for winter which may or may not come soon.

It is a ritual I put off as long I can, then I go full blast clearing out vegetables, trimming perennials, chasing down persistent weeds.

The garden did well without me this season. Torn between the project - framing - and taking advantage of plein painting opportunities plus loads of family stuff, the garden was left on its own, took care of itself and looked like a 35 year-old garden – full and colorful.

Still blooming in October

Working out there today made me appreciate the earth, the sky, the stubbornness of weeds, the hope of a single standing hollyhock in the middle of October.

There are surprises along the way, especially since I have not worked in the garden as hard or deliberately as previous years. Todays surprise is the beer radish. It started as an experiment along with regular radishes. Then they were forgotten until today when I came upon this one. Hmm… I wonder how many beers this will take to eat?

It will take a couple of days to clean and prep the rest of the garden but I don't think I have that much time. Weather is coming. Geese are gone. The yellow light will falter as the leaves drift to the ground.

Today was a lovely day. Gotta bottle it.

A beginning, Thursday am at South Creek

What is in it for me?

Who?

There were one-hundred-eighty-five portraits made. That statement is just a crack in the door. Why? The question is begged and I have replied a few different things. But that is not relevant to what happened to me.

What happened to me was unexpected. 185 people, all in a specific time of their lives, sat, all willing and some eager to be part of Face to Face. Some were complete strangers whom I now can greet and say hi. Some were people I had a preconceived notion of who they were from some other time or event that was completely wrong. Those were folks I was surprised to find them wanting to do this thing, have their portrait made by me. I realized if I was going to sit opposite that person, I had to throw out what I knew with all my prejudices and get on with the portrait.

That was my life changer.

By finding a way of scrubbing out preconceived ideas I became more open. It took me until the fourth month of the project to stop talking about myself and the project and turn the questions back to the sitter. It was hard work not to second guess where anyone was coming from in conversation. About that time my head, heart started opening to the real human element of the project. It was a very public place sitting there in Compass Printing yet all kinds of subjects were discussed. People would sit for two hours and we would talk.

From this opening in my head I was allowed to see my sitter better. As the project progressed, so did the seeing of the person and my ability to capture not just a likeness but also that particular space in time. The days mindset of the individual began to emerge in the work.

When Face to Face is finally hung, that will be a high point in the project. Even as the maker of all these portraits I have not yet seen all of them at one time. The story of the faces looking back at me, the progress in my work and my head is going to show. But I have no idea what that will look like.

Seeing them all looking back, that is what is in it for me.

Stay tuned.

Artliveslong, Diane

Two Days to go.
https://adirondackgives.org/campaigns/face-face-drawn-saranac-lake-lets-get-framed/