What I did on Summer Vacation

Well, it's been a busy summer, but a good one and I accomplished a number of things. I moved my studio, which I have mixed feelings about. I loved being in the artist community at Water Street Studios. It was great to be around other artists, to have people to talk to an lots of opportunities. However, my new place is a much more logical fit right now.

I've moved to a house that my husband and I own. It was the house we bought as newlyweds but then moved out of before our second child was born to a much bigger place a few blocks away. Anyway, for the past few years we've been renting it out since we were unable to sell it, but last year our tenants moved out and we decided not to be landlords anymore (since we kinda hated it). So rather than the property sitting empty and me paying rent somewhere else we consolidated.

The advantages are, hey it's a whole house, I have lots of room to spread out and the kids have plenty of room to run and play. Also, it is five blocks from my house, and Ty's school, which I really like.

My main studio area is 12x24, plus I have a room for storage, a room for all the kids play stuff, a reception/office room and of course a kitchen.

Leah's ramblings on Art

So, I'm being filmed for a little mini show, with episodes of a few minutes long, and just got a clip sent for me to look at. I thought it would be fun to post the link, some of my ramblings about why I do what I do.

Expecting Persephone

"Expecting Persephone" 24x30 oil and 22 kt gold and copper leaf on linen. This was a real learning painting for me. I struggled through a number of spots and even though I am not entirely satisfied with it (really when am I ever?) I am proud of myself for pushing through some big problems and I learned alot. To see the in progress photos:http://leahrmitchell.blogspot.com/2011/03/expecting-persephone.html

Dragon Fan

Well, I've finally finished a couple of paintings. Here is "The Dragon Fan" 16x20 oil on linen. For all of the in progress photos look at http://leahrmitchell.blogspot.com/2011/02/dragon-fan.html

Figure drawings

10x12 charcoal on toned paper 

19x25 charcoal on toned paper 

11x14 graphite

19x25 charcoal

So my 5 year old son says to me the other day: "Mom, you're really good at drawing naked people" Here are a couple figure drawings I've been working on. The top three are drawings from life that I did in school, the fourth is actually a drawing from a sculpture. I spent several hours at the Art Institute drawing one of the sculptures. The second is a drawing done from life a few years ago. Lately my opportunities to work from life have been pretty much non existent. The last one is a master copy.

The Studio

My studio was remarkably clean this morning, So I figured I better document it. Even at its cleanest my studio is still pretty cluttery. It's a little over 300 square feet and half of it is dedicated kid space. My dad built a play loft for them so they have two levels of space. I have a stage that I move around to catch natural light for models. A light box area that fits 2-3 still life set ups and a desk area. Usually I keep 2 major paintings going at a time and do random small ones along the way. I generally work between 15 and 20 hours a week, and the kids are with me the whole time since they aren't in school yet. They are pretty good at entertaining themselves,they have a lot of toys there, but mainly they draw and paint and work with playdough. They also run around and visit the other artists in the studio.

I work at Water Street Studios in Batavia IL. It's a community art center that rents space to about 30 artists whose work ranges from sculpture and ceramics to painting, photography, and graphic design. We have classrooms for teaching and a gallery that is home to 3 juried shows a year.

Andre Reading

I asked one of my brothers to sit for me recently, he was on spring break from grad school, he agreed to do it, but had a ton of homework so he read while I painted it. It was a really comfortable time of reading and painting and chatting and I hope that comes through in the painting. It is oil on canvas, 22x28 (I think) and I spent between 6 and 8 hours on it.