About Me
Leah McCloskey Bio
by Kay Louise Mitchell
Leah McCloskey lives a creative life. Her home in Salem, N.Y. is filled with light and life and color. It is always a work in progress filled with treasures and found objects and art. Her hearth is welcoming and cozy, her home dotted with comfortable places to sit, to read, to dream.
The man in her life, Dan Spitz, is a renowned local chef and together he and Leah have become well known active supporters of local farmers, sustainable agriculture and all varieties of great seasonal food. They raise chickens, some of whom have been featured in Leah’s portraits. They also share their home with two beloved Jack Russell terriers and two cats. Leah has an extensive flower garden that reflects her love of color.
Two to three days a week she travels to Manhattan to her current career as Outreach Director at the Art Students League where she is surrounded by the spirits of America’s historically famous artists and promotes the artwork of the League’s current students and members. Promotion and marketing come easily to Leah. She spent many years in NYC and traveling around the world as a successful model scout. Her intuition, eye for beauty, glamour and humor were honed by her fashion world experiences. “Nothing can replace the years I spent traveling the world. The different cultures, people, food and images make me the artist I am today.”
Her work has been exhibited in numerous places including, Flores Fine Art and Gallery 100 Saratoga Springs, NY. She has had solo- exhibitions at the Mimosa Gallery Saratoga Springs, NY, and Valley Artisans in Cambridge NY. and in 2010 and 2011 was featured in two 2 person shows at the Riverfront Studios in Schuylerville, NY. . She has participated in group shows with many local venues. Her work is in numerous private collections and public venues including Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs.
Leah says of her work: "I like to paint the familiar so painting animals; fish, dogs, cats, and chickens comes naturally to me. I grew up with 7 siblings in an old pre-Revolutionary farm house in Southern PA. We had at one time 12 dogs, 4 cats, a few horses, some goats and chickens. After living with them their shapes and movements make them much more than just animals; they are so familiar that painting them becomes more about the act rather than the object. I am always fascinated by the way an individual line or gesture of their iconic shapes will always tell the story, the rest can be pure creativity."
For McCloskey, it is about living creatively “ my entire life is about making art”.
Today Leah splits her time between her work in NYC as the Director of the Exhibition Outreach Program at the Art Students League of New York and her studio/home in Salem, NY.
The man in her life, Dan Spitz, is a renowned local chef and together he and Leah have become well known active supporters of local farmers, sustainable agriculture and all varieties of great seasonal food. They raise chickens, some of whom have been featured in Leah’s portraits. They also share their home with two beloved Jack Russell terriers and two cats. Leah has an extensive flower garden that reflects her love of color.
Two to three days a week she travels to Manhattan to her current career as Outreach Director at the Art Students League where she is surrounded by the spirits of America’s historically famous artists and promotes the artwork of the League’s current students and members. Promotion and marketing come easily to Leah. She spent many years in NYC and traveling around the world as a successful model scout. Her intuition, eye for beauty, glamour and humor were honed by her fashion world experiences. “Nothing can replace the years I spent traveling the world. The different cultures, people, food and images make me the artist I am today.”
Her work has been exhibited in numerous places including, Flores Fine Art and Gallery 100 Saratoga Springs, NY. She has had solo- exhibitions at the Mimosa Gallery Saratoga Springs, NY, and Valley Artisans in Cambridge NY. and in 2010 and 2011 was featured in two 2 person shows at the Riverfront Studios in Schuylerville, NY. . She has participated in group shows with many local venues. Her work is in numerous private collections and public venues including Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs.
Leah says of her work: "I like to paint the familiar so painting animals; fish, dogs, cats, and chickens comes naturally to me. I grew up with 7 siblings in an old pre-Revolutionary farm house in Southern PA. We had at one time 12 dogs, 4 cats, a few horses, some goats and chickens. After living with them their shapes and movements make them much more than just animals; they are so familiar that painting them becomes more about the act rather than the object. I am always fascinated by the way an individual line or gesture of their iconic shapes will always tell the story, the rest can be pure creativity."
For McCloskey, it is about living creatively “ my entire life is about making art”.
Today Leah splits her time between her work in NYC as the Director of the Exhibition Outreach Program at the Art Students League of New York and her studio/home in Salem, NY.
