Crealde’ Urban Sketching

Posted on by Thor

Each Sunday I teach an Urban Sketching class at Crealde’ School of Art . I continue to hold the classes outside especially sine the weather is getting so nice as it cools down. My next series of six classes starts October 24, 2021. The class starts at 9:30Am until 12:30PM. The Crealde’ campus is dotted with statues and curving paths making it a wonderful place to explore visually in a sketchbook.

In this class the students were tasked with the idea of sketching the tent to give the impression that they were inside of a room. They were taught the principles of one point perspective and then set out to capture the space using pencil, pen and watercolor. The goal is to produced finished looking sketches right from day 1. It is a delight so see students slow down and experience the zen of truly observing their surroundings. We live in a time of constant digital distractions and sketching with old school pencil and paper strips students away form that hive mindset for a moment. The hope is that some will become addicted to the act of creation every day.

I always do a sketch along with the students so they can see how I approach each sketch. I share the initial block in, the pen and ink stage and the watercolor while sharing compositional thumbnails that point out things they can consider in their own sketch.

I am proud that Crealde’ continues to keep students and staff masked and safe. I insist that my students must wear a mask any time they are withing 6 feet of one another. Personally I wear a KN95 mask at all times and many students follow my example. The hospitalization numbers continue to drop in the United States so I we continue to maintain precautions the numbers can continue to drop. This class each week is the one day I get out of the studio to feel the breeze on my face and get some sunshine. Sharing my love of sketching is helping keep me sane through this pandemic.

Crealde’ Demo

Posted on by Thor

At my Crealde Urban Sketching class, I noticed that my students who were working on thumbnail drawings were getting caught up in too much detail as they were sketching with lines. I was surprised at the amount of time they were taking for each thumbnail.

I decided that the best way to loosen them up was to do a quick demo. Rather then do a thumbnail, I decided to fill an entire page since they were watching from a six foot distance.

In this sketch I decided to focus on the foreground sculpture. I might usually try and make sure the base id fully visible but I decided to crop the base so the sculpture could be as large as possible.

Three totems were behind the sculpture I as sketching. Those totems were visually taller than the sculpture I was sketching, but I decided to make them smaller so the foreground sculpture was the largest thing in the sketch.

From where we were sketching the cube shaped cement bases were hidden by ferns. I explained that seeing those cubes was critical to seeing how the sculptures were grounded in the scene. The totems were also different sizes compared to one another but I grouped then as if they were all about the same size using one point perspective. The vanishing point as across the lake.

I lightly blocked in the basic shaped in pencil and then immoderately started blocking in large watercolor washed. The bridge was one big red wash the ferns in the foreground were bright yellow since they caught the sunlight and the rest was a messy wash of green and browns. The primary point o the lesson was that I never painted the sculptures until everything else was painted in around them. The sculpture are most visible because they are surrounded by darkness. The detailed line work in the totems was also added as a thought rather late in the process. For much of the time they were amorphous columns of white that I painted around. I enjoy the process most when I am playing with abstract patterns of light and dark puddles. Staying spontaneous and playful is the biggest challenge. If I feel the fun slippnig away, I close the sketchbook and walk away.

A lizard perched on the sculptures hand for the longest time and I sketched it into place. Most people don’t notice this little detail but for me it is everything. In general my sketch is a mess and that is what I encouraged my students to strive for. When one of my students complained about getting paint on her hands, I shouted out, “Yes! No you are cooking with grease!”

Playalinda Beach

Posted on by Thor

After I finished teaching on Sunday at Crealde, Pam, her niece and I headed out to Playalinda beach. We had never been to this beach before so it was an adventure for all of us. Playalinda is known for having a nude beach section and research on the road trip indicated the nude section was at the 13th parking lot.

Being a park on the Canaveral National Seashore, it costs money to get into Playalinda. A car load costs $20. For $40 you can get a yearly pass and Pam decided to get that since it would be paid off in just two beach trips. We quickly realized that these beaches are much less crowded than at Coco Beach. The water was a magnificent turquoise and deep blue and there were no rocks leading out to the surf.

Even I have to admit that the water was warm and delightful. The waves were gentle and rolling rather than threatening.

I decided I was not getting a sun burn this beach day. Sun screen was slathered on at home and I kept my white t shirt on even when I went out inn the waves. I stayed under the beach umbrella and kept my white Pocahontas beach towel over my legs the whole time to be sure my legs didn’t turn beat red. The last beach day I slathered some sun screen on my chest and shoulders and found out the next day that I had only applied sunscreen to a few patches and the resulting red pattern made me look like a camouflaged burn victim. Hopefully this trip I avoided getting to much sun. I suppose I will know by tomorrow.

Pam and her niece wanted to see the nude beach, so we drove to lot 13. They walked out to the beach to have a look but I stayed behind in the air conditioned car. If there isn’t enough time to sketch naked butts, I am not interested. Apparently there were quite a few very large naked men on the beach.  The larger the man, the smaller the dangling bits tend to appear.

Teaching in a Pandemic

Posted on by Thor

This summer I am teaching art seven days a week. Most of those classes are virtual. Summer courses have begun at Crealde School of Art. I have seven students but only five have shown up the past several weeks.

The first class, last week I held outside in an event tent that had been set up behind the campus. The morning started great but the heat was picking up by lunch time. One student found herself sitting in the direct sunlight when the clouds parted. She was a trooper and stuck it out to finish her sketch.

For week two I decided to hold a class inside at Crealde for the first time. I left the door open to allow some outdoor air to blow in but we got to experience air conditioning as we worked. One student kept her mask on the entire time which I deeply respect. I wore my mask around my neck as I gave the lesson plans since I have been fully vaccinated.

I recognize that being fully vaccinated does not make me impervious to COVID-19. There are breakthrough cases particularly with the Delta Variant igniting around the world.  The percentages presented a month ago were that fully vaccinated individuals are 95% safe from infection. However a study conducted in Israel found that half the people becoming infected were fully vaccinated. That means that the chances of becoming infected despite the vaccine went up to about 75%. So I’ve decided students should remain six feet apart when possible. I also kept myself well separated.

Each table is six feet long. I folded up any extra chairs and stacked them against the walls to reduce the chances that students would sit close together. Each student had their own table. In my sketch I put two students sitting at the same table but that is an artistic fabrication. I just wanted to squeeze one more student into the sketch for the sake of the demo. I did walk around and offer one on one advice to students, but for that, I flipped my mask up over my mouth and nose. I use sketches to do most of the talking, but the sketches stay in my own sketchbook. It was rewarding to see the students start to apply the ideas I offered.

Florida averages over 1600 new cases a day. The Delta variant has been confirmed to be in Central Florida as well. I paid attention to the air vents as I included them in my sketch. The air would circulate over students and then down the wall behind me. We are living in a grey transitional time. The Delta variant which doubles every to weeks will be the predominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States by August 2021 and another surge in cases is likely. Every day is a new risk assessment. Florida managed to have the highest case rates of any state yesterday, so there must be quite a bit of vaccine hesitancy in the Sunshine State. I went mask free for much of this class but my comfort level could change week to week as the pandemic continues to play out.

Kraft Azalea Garden in a Pandemic

Posted on by Thor

For my Urban Sketching class at Crealde on Sunday, I had one student show up of the four who usually attended. We stayed outside and my first exercise was to have him sketch postage sized detail while studying a Rembrandt etching of a landscape. The goal was to fill in one postage stamp sized area and then move on to another adjacent area again focusing only on the detail in a small area.

This exercise stresses the importance of focusing on minute detail after the big shapes have been blocked into a sketch. When this exercise was complete, we decided to go to Kraft Azalea Garden which was about a mile away. I figured it would be a quiet bucolic scene for my student to capture.

I was wrong. When I got there I found literally no parking available. The park was packed to the gills. My student had already set up and begun to sketch, so I kept driving by and about a half hour later a spot opened up.

The Garden designed by Bertram A. Weber is located on Lake Maitland. There are some waling paths and this semi circular series of columns. Inscribed on the back of the structure is the saying, “Pause friend let beauty refresh the spirit.”

It turns out these columns are a very popular photo shoot site. As I walked into the gardens a husband was kissing his wife’s pregnant belly as she stood is a flowing white dress. As I started my sketch, a large mask less family gathered for their phot0 shoot. The grandfather or uncle showed the young daughters a series of fist bumps, hand slaps and hand shakes. He apologized to me for the scene but I shouted back that I likes the chaos. He laughed.Since I was the only person in the park wearing a mask, people thankfully did not approach to look over my shoulder. I also though ahead and leaned back against a large tree, so people could only approach from in front of me.

After their family photos were taken a wedding party moved in. The mask less photographer apologized for leaving her mask in her car and claimed she had been tested 3 days before. If that was the case, she would not know the results. Of course the wedding party were mask less as well and the photographer moved in close to adjust the brides veil. After this chaos another photographer moved in and shot a mask less husband wife and child. The child cried the whole time.

It occurred to me that a photographer would be the perfect super spreader. a 60 year old photographer in India caught COVID-119 at one of his wedding shoots. He went on to infect 30 of his primary contacts. The photographer did not voluntarily report for testing, but instead went to photograph a wedding. Because of this, three villages with a population of nearly 39,000, are now red zones. The photographer died from the virus. Contact tracers tested 500 people, all primary and secondary contacts of the deceased, and 213 were put in quarantine.

My student finished his sketch a half hour early and he had to pee, so he left. We joked about the possible fallout from this park outing two weeks from now. I stayed until the end of class and wanted to add more detail to this sketch, but I decided to get the hell out of Dodge as well. This quiet sketch outing had turned into a scene of absolute public indifference to the health crisis. At least each family has beautiful photos to remember the dead.

Crealdé Fall Session

Posted on by Thor

The Crealdé School of Art Fall sessions will be session from August 17, 2020 to October 8, 2020. The Crealdé main campus and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center reopened on Saturday, May 16, 2020.

I will be teaching an Urban Sketching Course  in the Fall but likely students will remain on campus for doing location drawings. The sketch above is an example of a quick demo I did for students on campus.

The school is initiating new safety features and health practices which will be in place until further notice.

The Crealdé School Covid-19 Safety Measures.

1. Reducing the maximum number of students in classes to 6 – 8 students depending on classroom size and medium.

2. Re configuring the studio spaces and work tables to allow for 6 feet of social distance. Classroom floors will be clearly marked in a way that student traffic and pathways utilized will not impede or intrude upon the six-foot or more social distancing.

3. Galleries and exhibition spaces will be limited to 10 visitors at a time adhering to the 6 foot social distancing guidelines.

4. On a daily basis, Crealdé and Heritage Center staff are cleaning bathrooms and disinfecting doors, handles and classroom surfaces.

5. The school staff will promote frequent and thorough hand washing by faculty, staff, students and visitors.

6. Any staff, faculty, students or visitors who are coughing, sneezing or in general not feeling well, are asked to please stay at home, and to continue to follow the directions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or a health professional. Anyone demonstrating health issues will be asked to leave.

7. Students are encouraged to use their personal work and art tools and equipment when possible. For youth classes, separate individual “baggies” will be provided for each student’s class supplies.

8. The school is instituting regular/enhanced instructor housekeeping and maintenance/janitorial practices, including routine cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces, equipment, and other elements of the school environment after each class is dismissed.

9. Until further notice, the school strongly encourages the wearing of masks in classrooms and exhibition spaces for students and visitors.  All  instructors will be wearing masks in class.

Crealde Urban Sketching Class

Posted on by Thor

My Crealde Urban Sketching Class begins Sunday January 19, 2020 starting at 9:30am. This is a sketch of the classroom. Outside the window you can see one of my students sketching on a sunny day. Inside I was demonstrating to another student how to block in the room quickly in a composition and how to place a figure. The primary reason for this quick sketch was to demonstrate how to leave large shapes on the page pure white and then apply a light wash over the rest of the sketch to make those shapes pop.

Each morning we start by exploring a premise in the classroom and then in the last half or the class we move out into the community to sketch on location. Just getting students to realize that when they draw on location, no one is judging them. I might offer insights, but I don’t judge the work. Each student has their own approach and temperament and the variety we see across the board is part of what makes drawing on location with other artists so exciting.

Last semester I started asking students to share their work on Instagram.  This allows them to share work with each other and possible hear from a much wider community of artists. On Instagram I also share all the rough class notes and composition sketches I do for students. That was students can see what was shared.

The past few weeks I have been pouring over thousands of my early student sketches and it has been an eye opening learning experience. Some of the sketches I did back in my 20s and 30s are bold and daring and it is making me want to experiment more with my work in the next year. I worked much larger in my youth, usually on 18 by 24 inch sketch pads. I scaled down when I started sketching once a day starting back in 2009. Part of the reason was to be sure that I could scan the drawings on my flat bed scanner. I think I might grow much faster as an artist if I return to working larger and find other ways to work around the limits of scanning technology. So here is to a bigger and bolder 2020.

The next 6 week Urban Sketching course has been canceled due to lack of enrollment.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for Octover 27 and 28, 2018

Posted on by Thor

Saturday October 28, 2018 

9am to 3pm Adults: $19.50. Seniors 60+: $15.95. Children 3-12 years: $13.75. Children 2 and under: Free. Annual Pass Holder: Free. Zoo Boo Bash. Sanford Zoo 3755 W Seminole Blvd, Sanford, FL 3277. The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens invites children and
adults alike to trick-or-treat throughout the park while learning about
the myths and realities of endangered animals. Kids are encouraged to
wear costumes and bring goody bags. Events include costume contests,
face painting and more. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Event included in general zoo
admission. At the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, 3755 W.
Seminole Blvd. 407-323-4450. centralfloridazoo.org

10am to 6pm Free. 13th annual Central Florida Veg Fest. Festival Park, 2911 E Robinson St, Orlando, FL 32803. The Orlando Weekly has again signed
on as an Earth Sponsor of Central Florida Veg Fest! The Central Florida
Veg Fest Info Guide will be printed as a pull-out in the middle of the
Orlando Weekly on October 24, 2018 and circulated to over 277,000
readers. The event will also have several promotional ads in the Weekly.

8am to 10pm Free. 10th anniversary “Halloween Block Party”. Liam Fitzpatrick’s Restaurant and Irish Pub at Colonial Town Plaza located at 951 Market Promenade Ave., Suite 1115, Lake Mary, FL. North Orlando’s block party and nightlife destination is at it again as
Liam Fitzpatrick’s Restaurant and Irish Pub joins together with Colonial
Town Park plaza neighbors Graffiti Junction, Dexter’s of Lake Mary,
Duffy’s Sports Grill, and Cantina and Corona Cigar Company to
welcome the 10th anniversary “Halloween Block Party” on Saturday,
October 27, 2017 starting at 8pm. The eek-citing event is free and open
to the public, and all guests (21 & up) are invited to drink, dance
and dress in their Halloween best outside Liam Fitzpatrick’s and around
the festive plaza, while enjoying two live DJ’s spinning throughout the
night, tasty brews and bites and the area’s biggest costume contest
awarding $1000 in cash prizes for the winners.

For
the 10th anniversary, Liam’s Halloween Block Party will support Orlando
City Youth Soccer, who will be on site collecting donations and
receiving 100% of proceeds from a specialty Halloween shot all night.
Orlando City Youth Soccer is the preeminent youth club in Central
Florida, whose core values are player development, parental guidance,
coaches education and community outreach.

Sunday October 28, 2018

10am to Noon Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources.

11am to 4pm Free. Puppet Slam. 707 E Washington St, Orlando, FL 32801. Live puppetry performances happening sporadically during the Bazaar Botanica Art Market.

10pm to Midnight Free but get a coffee. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

St. Augustine at 450: A Crealdé Documentary Project

Posted on by Thor

Hannibal Square Heritage Center, (642 West New England Avenue, Winter Park, FL) held an opening for Crealdé‘s newest photo documentary project, which  celebrates the oldest city in the United States, Saint Augustine, on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of its founding.

Ten photographers captured the city’s past, its preservation efforts and its place as a tourist destination, college town and home to a diverse population.The photos showcased the city’s historic sights. Had this been an exhibition of pie in air paintings and or sketches it would have been a different story. The historic city of Saint Augustine has a law on the books which makes the creation of art in the city’s most historic areas illegal. Artists found guilty of painting or sketching are subject to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

The city of Winter Park decided to copy this insane ordinance which is being contested in the supreme court for being unconstitutional. It is non illegal to create art in Winter Park’s Park Avenue, New England Avenue and Heritage Square. Largely drafted to prohibit performance art, visual art’s are included in the law. If I were to return to Heritage Square Center, where this sketch was done and I tried to sketch the building exterior, I could face jail time today. The ordinance went into effect on December 14, 2015.

The Musical group in this sketch is Ka Malinalli which performed traditional Mexican tunes and original music. The violinist is 16 year old Ariah Deason.  Kattya Graham, who founded the group has since decided to perform solo. Kattya gave me a CD and I enjoy the music in my car on long drives. A large Day of the Dead skull and a small sculpture of a face breaking free of a mask pointed back to the mystical Mexican roots behind the music. 

Would I return to Hannibal Square to sketch now that Winter Park considers my actions criminal? Only time will tell.  But Winter Park has certainly taken a step back to the dark ages by limiting and criminalizing freedom of expression.  Were Ka Malinalli to perform outside the Heritage Center today they too could face jail time.

Night of Fire lights up Crealdé School of Art.

Posted on by Thor

The fourth annual Night of Fire at Crealdé School of Art, (600 Saint Andrews Boulevard, Winter Park, FL) offered a chance to see artists at work in each of the studios. I settled in to Painting and Drawing Studio 1A where Crealde faculty Robert Ross and Barbara Tiffany were painting a still life with some eggs in a bowl and a letter. Marie Orban was also drawing from a model, although the model as on a break in the time I was sketching.

The whole campus comes alive after dark for  A Night of Fire. There was live music, refreshments and storytelling around the fire. Other workshops and demonstrations including a bronze pour, a gas kiln firing and raku firing. After finishing my sketch I warmed up with a cup of hot spiced wine and walked toward the lake to wait for a light-painting photography display. A dark silhouette of a boat on the lake could faintly be seen. I speculated with another patron to try and figure out what the light painting was all about. Small fireworks and sprinklers began dancing over the water. A camera with it’s shutter open recorded all the action compiling all the light motion into one image. I lost interest and wandered off to a warm fire pit.

The evening also served as the opening reception for the “Director’s Choice V” exhibition of works by Crealde’s youth faculty.

The Alice and William Jenkins Gallery had paintings by Bill Jenkins, the school’s founder in honor of the school’s 40th Anniversary. The Front Office was open to register for classes. All the activities were free.