Art in the Alley

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Christmas lights are ablaze in downtown Mount Dora. On every 2nd Friday of the month, Art in the Alley brings art, music, and more to Mount Dora. 

Art and music exhibitors line Royellou Lane, in the heart of downtown Mount Dora, showcasing their original art, handmade goods and acoustic sounds. Downtown galleries have extended hours and are open to the public free of charge.

This is a unique opportunity to experience a vibrant, eclectic mix of emerging and established artists.

Start your stroll at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts Gallery (138 East Fifth Avenue

Mount Dora, FL 32757) to pick up the Art in the Alley map. As you stroll down Royellou Lane have your map punched at each of the gallery stops along the way. Once you have visited all of the galleries, bring your completed punched map to the Gatehouse Gallery at the Lakeside Inn (100 Alexander St, Mt Dora, FL 32757) to be entered into a raffle for a special prize. By the way, the rocking chairs on the front port of the Lakeside Inn are a great place to watch the sunset should you want to make an evening of it.

Each month provides new themes and exhibitors to enjoy, completely free of charge.
So be sure to stop by each month to see what’s new!

The Galleries are open from 6 pm to 8 pm,
and the Sidewalk Artists and Musicians are out till 9 pm. The next Art in the Alley is January 10, 2020. Check out the sunset, some holiday lights and some art.

Crealde Urban Sketching Class

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I teach a 6 week Urban Sketching Tips and Techniques Class at Crealde School of Art (600 Saint Andrews Boulevard Winter Park, Fl). Even in the heart of winter we head outside each class to get out of the studio environment and sketch from direct observation. Half of the class is usually in the classroom as we explore a new premise then we sketch from life. We expand from drawing a single person to capturing the entire scene. Each class builds on the last. The goal is always to get the students to finish their sketches using pencil, pen and ink and watercolor within a two hour window. Sketches in the beginning of the course might be unfinished but towards the end of the course the work becomes more complete. A sketch by definition is unfinished however and I try and relate that form of acceptance.

I dash of fast digital sketches like the one above as the students at focusing on their own work. I also make the rounds and offer suggestions in the form of sketches to each student when they start out. The initial composition is what I try and get them to focus on before the details. In the first 5 or 6 strokes of the pencil the entire composition can be established and I try and get the students to embrace the same bold approach.

I end up missing each group of students when the course is over. Six weeks is just enough time to get them started on what could be a life long journey but I always wish that I could have shared more. I set up an Instagram hashtag (#crealdesketcher) so I can share notes and students can also share work with each other. Communicating and sharing is the main reason to become an Urban Sketcher, so I am hoping this platform will open students up to sharing their work online.

My next Urban Sketching Tips and Techniques Class in studio 1B begins Sunday January 19, 2020 at 9:30am until 12:30pm and runs for the following six Sundays. The price is $270 for Members and $290 for Non-Members. Go to the Crealde website to register.

Miami Beach Art Deco Festival

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Art Deco Weekend is the longest running free community cultural festival in Miami Beach with over 85 unique events. I will be going to sketch live music, the Art Deco marketplace, the antique promenade, the classic car show, the free dance classes, the Woman’s Suffrage Centennial Parade, the Art Deco Dog Walk along with special exhibitions and other unexpected pop up events.

I will be giving 2 sketch demos where I will sketch on the large leathery round leaves that can be found in the beach front park. The leaves are so strong that they can be sent through the mail as post cards and I want to try sending an Art Deco post card back to my studio through old fashioned mail.

Street performances can pop up at any time so the sketch opportunities are endless. I will have fun sharing what I love to do sprinkled in with some of the vibrant local history that makes this area so exciting.

Kick off the New Year at the Miami Beach Art Deco Festival 2020

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Sketch With Us at the Miami Beach ART DECO Historic District to capture the essence of the 1920 Era into your sketchbook!

Urban Sketchers Florida regional is announcing the 2020 Art Deco Weekend Sketchwalk event to take place in Miami Beach, Florida on the weekend of January 17th to the 19th, 2020.

Led by an enthusiastic USk Florida regional team and urban sketchers instructors of the know, our sketchers guests will be walking along rows of Art Deco architecture gems at the Historic District streets to capture in their sketchbooks the flavor and essence of the Art Deco era and the Retro Lifestyle of the 1920 – 1930s.

In the three-day program, the USk FL Regional team will lead five sketchwalks and eighth urban sketching demos. Leading  the Art Deco Urban Sketchers event are volunteers from three Urban Sketchers Florida chapters; USk Miami, USk Orlando, and USk Tampa.

Our primary leading instructors are; James Richards, Thomas Thorspecken, Gaston McKenzie and Greg Bryla, together with instructors members of the FL USk chapters.

Find Sketchwalks schedule and Demos information here. 

The event is Free of charge to all participants. All skill levels are welcome. Registration is required.

Where to Stay: Suggested hotels accommodation in the Miami Beach, Historic district. 

It is the 43rd Art Deco Weekend annual festival run by the Miami Design Preservation League who invited Urban Sketchers into their official program.

 This upcoming year’s theme is SHEROES: Women Who Made a Difference. Celebrating a 100 years anniversary of Women’s Suffrage. The festive event will incorporate the Art Deco and Retro lifestyle of people, music, food and street entertainment, Jazz Age Stage, Suffragette’s Parade, Health and Wellness programs, Lummus Park exhibition and other events that are all great sketch opportunities! More information about the 2020 ART DECO WEEKEND can be found here. 
Urban Sketchers or associates who are seeking to volunteer at this event are welcome to apply here: uskorlando@gmail.com

Florida Citrus Bowl Parade

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Some quaint Orlando traditions keep falling to the wayside. First the Kumquat parade disappeared and now the Florida Citrus Bowl Parade is a thing of the past.The  annual Parade celebrated the holidays and two annual college football bowl games: the Camping World Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.

Started in 1980, the parade was previously known as the Florida Power (Progress Energy) Super Holiday Parade, the Orlando Citrus Parade, and most recently the Fresh From Florida Parade. In 2005, Delta Air Lines sponsored the parade, calling it The Orlando Citrus Parade, presented by Delta Air Lines. Since 2007, Spherion
was a major sponsor of the parade along with Delta Air Lines as
co-sponsor, being called The Spherion Orlando Citrus Parade, presented
by Delta Air Lines.

In 2011, the parade was sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
being renamed as the Fresh From Florida Parade for one year. It then became
known as the Florida Citrus Parade. In 2018 the parade was televised in
the Orlando market as the “All New Orlando Citrus Parade” in a star
studded celebration to benefit the Give Kids The World Village.

This year the Orlando Citrus Parade organizers choose not to stage the event citing the cost of planning and producing the event.I used to love sketching the Shriner’s at the beginning of the parade route before they got in their tiny go cars to spin their way down the parade route.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for December 21 and 22, 2019

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Saturday December 21, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. John H Jackson Community Center, 3107, 1002 W Carter St, Orlando, FL 32805. Purchase
quality, fresh and healthy food grown in your own neighborhood by local
farmers, including Fleet Farming, Growing Orlando, and other community
growers.

10am to 4pm Free. Commander’s Call. Museum of Military History 5210 West Irlo Bronson Hwy Kissimmee FL 34746. This ongoing program is held on the 3rd Sat of each month is designed to
appeal to families, military memorabilia collectors, history buffs,
re-enactors & others interested in military history. In addition,
persons interested in displaying, trading or selling their military
items such as honor coins, swords, photographs, military buttons, scale
model boats & planes, military art, uniforms or other equipment
register in advance by calling the museum to reserve a spot. Re-enactors
& veterans are welcome to come in uniform to add to the history
& authenticity of the military experience. Non-military booths such
as health care providers, home improvement, local attractions or other
businesses are invited to be vendors for minimal donation.
INFO & Register: 407-507-3894 or to register your table space.

4pm to 8pm Free. Cruisin’ Downtown DeLand Car Show! East Indiana Ave Downtown DeLand, Deland FL. Classic cars & rods. Live DJ, giveaways, shopping & dining. Fun for the family! Every 3rd Saturday night! INFO: & for showing your car 386-738-0649

Sunday December 22, 2019

9am to 11pm  Admission: $10 for Guests, $5 for Mennello Museum Members. Yoga in the Mennello Museum Sculpture Garden. Mennello Museum of American Art 900 E Princeton St, Orlando, Florida 32803.  

11am to Noon. $5. $5 Yoga. Lake Eola Park, near red gazebo. 

Noon to 2pm. Free but order a bite to eat. Florida Gospel Jam.  Fish on Fire 7937 Daetwyler Drive Belle Isle FL. Every 2nd and 4th Sunday.

Art Deco Weekend

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Orlando Urban Sketchers, Miami Urban Sketchers, and Tampa Urban Sketchers, will be a part of Art Deco Weekend in trendy South Beach Miami  this year. You can sketch with us at the Miami Beach Historic
District to capture the essence of the 1920 Era in your
sketchbook. This event is FREE. All ages and all drawing levels and skills are welcome.

The Art Deco Weekend festival by the Miami Design Preservation League is thrilled to include for the first time the Urban Sketchers in their official program with a series of Sketch walks, Urban Sketching
demonstrations and “Drink and Draw” events. Join us as we draw the
architectural gems of the Miami Beach Historic Art Deco District and
capture the essence of the 1920s Art Deco Weekend Festival Events.

A Sketchwalk is
an interactive walking tour run by urban sketcher leaders, where participants stop to pull out their sketchbooks and capture the scene in
a drawing. These on location from observation sketches tell the story
of place, time, and community. Equipped with inks and colors, urban
sketchers use their personal drawing techniques, interpreting their view
through their own styles. At each walk, through a ceremonious
“Sketchbook Throwdown”, the incredible variety of work captured is
shared and discussed, providing inspiration and a fascinating show and
tell for all.

The primary leading instructors are; James Richards,
Thomas Thorspecken, Gaston McKenzie and Greg Bryla, together with
instructors members of the FL USk chapters.

I will be hosting two demos, called, Leaf Something Behind.

Location: Versace Mansion – South beach park, opposite the Villa Casa Casuarina (1116 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach, FL 33139).

Description: As artists our goal is to leave something behind with the sketches we create.

Using found object Grape Leaves to do a pen and ink sketch of the active festival street scene.

On the beach front there are Sea Grape trees that have large round leathery leaves.

We will hang out in the beach front park or on the street as I do a sketch of the scene in pen and ink on one of these leaves.

The leaves can be mailed as post cards and I plan to test this out with the finished sketch.

Should
you like to do a leaf sketch yourself, I can’t guarantee there are
enough lying on the ground, but there were plenty last time I visited.

What to bring:
Bring your sketchbook and sketching supplies of your choice. As this
event is OUTDOORS be prepared with drinking water, portable chair/stool,
and appropriate clothes for the weather.

Where: Sketch walks commence at the Urban Sketchers tent (1001 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139).

Orlando Scrabble Club

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Pam Schwartz is ultra competitive and loves games. She joined me on a trip to Wirz Park (8006 Mark David Blvd Casselberry Florida) to attend Orlando Scrabble Club. We got to meet other central Florida Scrabble players. Everyone is welcome, from new players to tournament players. Scrabble is a word game where you get tiles with letters on them and the player with the most points on the board wins. Different letter tiles have different numeric values. For instance Y is worth 4 points while vowels like A, E, I, O, U are worth one point. Scrabble has a game board, 100 letter tiles, a letter bag, and four racks.

I am not good at word games so I figured I would be safe sketching while I watched Pam play. I thought this would be a nice relaxed community of players but Scrabble players are hard core. Each table had a times to keep the action moving at a break neck speed. Players at each table had to agree on which dictionary to use in case there was a dispute about a word. The room was tense. There must have been quite a few serious tournament players in the room. Pam later let me know that players she was up against new the most obscure words. She was the beginner in the room but she was a good sport.

The Orlando Scrabble Club is the best place for meeting other players in the Orlando, or central Florida areas. They meet Mondays at 7:00 p.m. at the Wirz Park Recreation Building in Casselberry, FL. Visit their meetings page for a map and directions to the venue.

Take pART, A Festival of the Arts

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I went to St. Luke’s United Methodist Church (4851 S Apopka Vineland Rd Orlando Florida) to Take pART in a Festival of the Arts held in their community Room. This used to be the place I went to vote so I was aware of  the location. St. Luke’s hosted this
new event celebrating creativity and local artists.

 The year’s theme was “Footloose and fancy free,” in
partnership with St. Luke’s summer musical Footloose. All were welcome
to submit original fine art related to the theme.

Take pART was a free event open to everyone. Art lovers and creatives could enjoy a stroll through “Artist Alley” to view artwork in the Fine
Art Gallery. There were featured artistic demonstrations and
workshops, where you could make and take your own artwork. There was
even a creative kids corner for budding artists. Pencils and markers could be found on each of the round tables and that is where I set up to sketch.

The evening’s main event was an Open Mic Night starting at 6:00 p.m. It was largely an evening of Karaoke. The one song I took note of was Killing Me Softly composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The song was written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman, who recorded it in late 1971. It was a number-one hit in 1973 for Roberta Flack.The performance at Take pART wasn’t quite as haunting. I ended up sketching a woman performing a spoken word piece.

Set build for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley

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I went to the Orlando Shakes scenic shop to watch the set build for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon. Jeff Ferree with his unicorn, hotdog, and patriotic popsicles shirt,was busy populating several book shelves. The shelves needed books and he realized there was plenty of left over styrofoam in the shop, so he decided to create the book using the foam rather than getting a whole lot of heavy books. Once the book forms were cut they then needed to be sanded and the ridge of the binding needed to be added. In the background, Hannah Kleinpeter, was sanding consistently as I sketched. I actually started my sketch with her since she was so focused on the task at hand. All the cutting and sanding had to be interrupted for a while when the theater next door filled up with students excited to see a show.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley will light up your holiday season. It is
a touching romantic comedy with a gorgeous set with lots of custom books. Jane Austen’s quick wit and lively humor are
preserved in this Pride and Prejudice sequel. All your favorites, Lizzy,
Mr. Darcy, Jane, Lydia, and especially Mary Bennet have gathered for Christmas.
Awkward and bookish, Mary had been written off as a spinster, but when a
curious visitor comes for the holiday, Mary blossoms, finding a kindred spirit
who challenges her intellect and just may capture her heart. Can Mary become
the heroine of her own destiny? Could this mean independence for the dutiful
middle sister? The delightful love story unfolds like a Christmas card for
Austen devotees and newbies alike. 

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley runs through December 29, 2019.

Orlando Shakes in the Margeson
Theater

John and Rita Lowndes
Shakespeare Center

812 East Rollins Street,
Orlando, FL 32803

Ticket Information:

Wednesdays – Saturdays
at 7:30 p.m. and every Sunday and select Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. – starting at
$30.  Preview Performances and
Senior Matinees – starting at $20.

CAST

Mary Bennet: Kristin
Shirilla

Arthur de Bourgh:
Cameron Francis

Elizabeth Darcy : Lauren
Culver

Fitzwilliam Darcy: Brett
D. Waldon

Jane Bingley: Samantha
Potak

Charles Bingley: Preston
Ellis

Lydia Wickham: Brandy
Bell

Anne de Bourgh: Jillian
Gizzi

CREATIVE TEAM

Director: Anne Hering

Scenic Designer: Chris McKinney

Lighting Designer: Larry Rodriguez

Costume Designer: Howard Vincent Kurtz

Sound Designer: Britt Sandusky

Lighting Design Assistants: Sierra Goins,
Kelsey Monteith, Joe Gugliuzza, and Levi Roberts

AEA Stage Manager: Paige Gober