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

Here you are. MLJ Feb. 19 Broadcast

I suspect Friday evenings' end-of-the-week clarion call let the actual viewing of Mountain Lake Journal slip through everyones consciousness. That's ok, I get it. Here is the footage Josh took while he talked with me about Face to Face.

It isn't about me, as much as it is about the people and the project. I hope that shows. Thank you to everyone who helped, who I missed mentioning, who gave me their time. Face to Face belongs to you.

Mountain Lake Journal Interview


Stay tuned. I'll talk about Arenal in Costa Rica later this week,  the March pastel of the month.

Artliveslong, D

Face to Face with Josh, October 10, 2014

Mountain Lake PBS interviews Diane Leifheit Feb. 19

PBS Mountain Lake will be featuring an interview with Diane Leifheit at 8 pm, this Friday, February 19th on its program Mountain Lake Journal with Josh Clement. The interview considers Diane's project, Face to Face, Drawn to Saranac Lake, exhibiting in August in 4 venues in Saranac Lake. http://mountainlake.org/programs/tv-schedule/schedule#page=schedule&day=20160219&provider=Broadcast

Poster for 2015 exhibit

Behind the scenes … or is it just behind?

Just about wrapped up a purge month of January. No. No diet or crazy exercises. A purge of the corners of my computer/card making/sewing/bookkeeping room month. Got through about with half the magazines out the door - a lot! - and some books and paperwork of zero relevance.

Baby Sleeping Bag Quilt for Emin.

Five garbage bags later – I found my sewing machine and got to making the long promised quilt for No. 1 grand boy born November 29.  I am no match for quiltmakers of days of yore but it is a fine way to celebrate his birth with scrapes and pieces of memories. Hopefully it will be used til falling apart long into the future.

The same purge mode is beginning to happen in the studio. Corners are being vanquished and some cupboards will be reduced to clarity again. Children and grand kids will do that to you. Why leave all this junk for them? Granted some is bonafide memory stuff, but really they do not need to deal with: "Mom why did you save mini cigar boxes or six pane storm windows?"

Creatives know why but can't always explain. Some idea at the time seemed to take hold but vanished into the ether when a season changed or other distant emergencies arose.

Chilly and Bright, South Creek

Then there are the priorities. Gotta paint. Yes that is what I have to do. The clarity of a semi straightened out space gives me permission to head into work that has needed to get out of my head and on paper.

Grapes and Roses (seen last month) was inspired by that distant trip I made to France some summers ago. There are other images that need outing from that visit and I have to get to them. Then Chilly and Bright began this past fall as noted in the "Yellow Day" edition.

So it has not all been garbage bags and thread snipping.

Stay tuned for new work.

Artliveslong, D

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.