Langford Park Orlando

Posted on by Thor

After the experience with Jeff Wirth as part of  the Play Coach Story Swap, Stella Arbeláez and I decided it would be nice to do a painting in Langford Park. Stella had her full painting set up in her car and I had my usual sketching supplies. Langford Park and Dickson Azalea Park are right next to one another. The little stream that runs through Azalea Park also runs through Langford Park. Langford park is more open and expansive with some of the oldest trees in Orlando.

Stella and I set up on a sort of peninsula that is between several paved hiking trails. The advantage of this spot was that few people would walk buy as we were working. It offered privacy in the otherwise very public park. While we were painting and sketching, a large group of after school children were being guided on a forced march around Langford. The adult in charge would shout at the top of her lungs, “ Sarah, stop right there! Let everyone catch up!”  The fits and starts of the forced march were punctuated with constant commands from the supervising adult. Was my childhood that structured and highly supervised? Dear god I hope not. Rather than enjoying the sights and sounds of nature these kids were being hearded to the point of squeezing away any joy.

Stella set up her easel and was doing a full on painting while I sat in my tiny artist stool and sketched the tree and stream. Stella got to play with magnificent warms and cools in her study , while I cranked out my dark sketch of a beautiful live oak with it’s twisted limbs. The focus of my composition was the horizontal light gap below the gnarly branches. The grass was sun lit on the distance while the live oak was a dark mass casting much of the scene into the shadows.

I got up a few times to see what Stella was up to. I liked the vibrant colors she was playing with. I have been getting frustrated lately at how dirty the colors are that I end up using thanks to of my filthy everyday watercolor palette. It is almost impossible for me to get a clean blue sky without some green getting thrown into the mix.  I just purchased 3 tubes of primary colors of gouache yesterday and want to start using them to mix more opaque passages in my sketches.

In this sketch, I wanted to make the hanging Spanish moss more obvious but the areas had already been painted with dark greens. I lightened up the moss with some white colored pencil but gouache would have worked much better. It would also be nice to paint in some light gaps between the bulk of the leaves. I have some of the parts to assemble a compact easel. I just need to settle down long enough to actually screw the parts together.

There is something very reassuring about working beside and artist whose work I respect, knowing that they are experiencing the same doubts, and frustrations while creating. There is a dopamine rush that comes as the many mistakes and corrections start bringing the sketch or painting to life. I get lost in the process and despite the many questions and doubts, I feel good about having gone through the process each time. I need to feel that rush every day. It is an addiction.

Play Coach Story Swap

Posted on by Thor

Jeff Wirth is a dynamic theatrical powerhouse in the interactive Orlando Theater Community. I sketched some of his unique workshops and productions early in my Orlando sketch a day journey. In one workshop he demonstrated the proper way to roll up electrical chords. You wind the chord between your wrist and elbow and every other turn the chord needs to be flipped to take away some of the rotational tension. Anyway, I think of Jeff every time I roll up a chord after working in the shop.

Jeff is the director at the Interactive Play lab. The Play Lab fosters Interactive performance  where audience members become co-creators of performed fiction. The Interactive PlayLab provides resources and training for creators of interactive performance. Jeff offers books, e-books, apps and templates to help performers meet their full potential,

Jeff moved to New York for a number of years and he dropped off my radar. When he returned to Orlando he immediately promoted his Interactive Play experiences on Facebook. I signed up but wanted to find a way to also sketch the experience. Sketching is how I play. I recruited a dear friend, Stella Arbeláez to also participate. The experience involved sharing stories and I know she is exceptional at sharing her story.

We met Jeff at the entrance to Dickson Azalea Park. I was looking at the possibility of buying a home in the Azalea Park area, so I considered it a sign that the universe was speaking to me. The home it turns out had termites that had infested all the roof rafters. Since I wasn’t up to rebuilding the home from the inside out, I abandoned the sale. All the reconstruction costs would have added over $100,000 to the price.

We walked with Jeff through the park until we came to a bench that overlooked a babbling stream. Jeff and Stella sat on the bench and I set up my little artist stool to sketch. Boo Boo jumped up on Stella’s lap and settled in. He was having a grand time with all the new smells to be found in Azalea park.

The structure of the Story Swap was pretty straight forward, Jeff asked a few questions and let Stella relate her stories of  shock and recovery. I will not recount what she discussed, they are her stories to tell, but they left me feeling inspired that the creative human spirit is incredibly resilient.  She took a sip from her aluminum water canister between tales.

Jeff then relayed his own story of a young relationship which had to end, yet there was no animosity in the separation. They both loved one another but work pulled the couple in different directions. They walked into divorce court holding hands. Having lived through a bitter divorce that probably still clouds my dark view of what a relationship can become, and having a marriage proposal refused, I found his story of loving separation surprising and ideal. Like an army retreating, my bridges are demolished with explosives.

I was so elated to have two of my dear friends relating such intimate and heart warming stories the very first time they met. When I look at social media or follow politics I see nothing but stories of violence and deception. I make it a policy that once I see a punch thrown on social media I turn it off and instead go about doing a sketch. Sitting with Jeff and Stella made me feel that there is still hope for friends to share meaningful stories that show how the human spirit can grow despite life’s challenges. Life can be a playful challenging adventure that is meant to be shared.

After the story swap, Jeff walked off, and Stella and I decided to do a painting in the park. We walked off to the car to get art supplies and when we got there, Stella realized she didn’t have her aluminum water canister. She riffled through the car but it wan’t there. She must have left it on the bench by the stream. We hiked back into Azalea Park toward the bench. As we got close, I noticed a man walking towards the bench. He was with his ten year old son. The dad picked up the water canister and started to walk off. We ran after him shouting out that the canister was Stella’s. He was happy to surrender it. Another of life’s tragedies had been narrowly averted.

Pre-Pandemic: Dickson Azalia Park

Posted on by Thor

Prior to the Pandemic I was doing a series of sketches of Orlando’s Significant Trees. This was the final series f sketches I was doing before the sate wide lock down. Dickson Azalea Park (100 Rose Garden Drive) is a rare gem in Orlando. Of note in this scene are the Long Leaf Pine trees which are about 100 years old. They are extremely tall because they had to compete for light against the Oak trees which grow along the upper edge of the ravine.

The paths in this park follow a stream and the entire park is sunk because of erosion, sort of like a mini grand canyon only less orange. I have become infatuated with the pattern that tree branches make against the sky. Working with the complexity of natural forms I also have an excuse to just play with the paint, sometimes just splattering the page for pattern.

I have just 3 of these locations yet to visit, but I stopped after the stay at home order. I have no need to have my work labeled #floridamoron because I risk my life for the sake of any one painting. Instead, I stay in and paint the nightmare that is modern politics that first didn’t recognize the problem and then does as little as possible to resolve it.

On March 3, 2020 the day this sketch was done, California Governor Gavin Newsom released millions of N-95 face masks to be used in low emergency health settings. That state was mobilizing every level of government to address the impending threat of the virus. On March 3, the third case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Florida. One was a 29-year-old Hillsborough County woman who had recently traveled
to Italy and the second was a 63-year-old Manatee County man who had
contact with someone who tested positive. The third patient, was a 22-year-old California woman, who was the sister of the
29-year-old Hillsborough County woman who was diagnosed after traveling
to Italy. On this day the Florida Department of Health first set up a Covid-19 hotline. On the day after this sketch was done Florida Governor Ron DeSantis informed Orlando residents, “that the risk of contracting the coronavirus is low for Floridians.” He was clearly WRONG, and should have been preparing for what was to come.

A few people have complained about my dark pandemic illustration series, so periodically I will just post a pretty tree for contrast with the harsh realities we face. There is good reason to someday, somehow return to a new normal. But this can not happen until our country gets serious about testing and tracing to isolate those that are infected. People are protesting the stay at home orders, but they are risking their own lives and the lives of others because anyone carrying a picket sign could be infected.

Today over 27,000 people are infected in Florida and 800 have died. The numbers don’t begin to hint at the precious lives lost and the creative potential of every person who died needlessly. One of my favorite artists, Egon Schile died in the pandemic of 1918. Who knows what he might have created had he survived.

Dickson Azalea Park

Posted on by Thor


Dickson Azalea Park (100 Rosegarden Drive) is in full bloom. I couldn’t resist sketching on a sunny afternoon sitting in the dappled shade. Church bells in the distance clanged incessantly. The park was full of Azalea bushes blooming vibrant magenta, pink, red and white. When it came time to sketch however, I became fascinated with the huge moss covered roots of a live oak tree. The roots were exposed because a stream had washed away the dirt. Roots clutched and twisted, trying to reach out for new found ground. Fresh green shoots burst vibrant green on the opposite bank in direct sunlight.

I seldom do intimate studies like this. I’m usually preoccupied with sketching quick glimpses of events around town. Yet sitting and observing nature has its place. This cropped in vantage point began to feel abstract as I worried less about what I was painting and I got lost in how I was painting. I could learn much from slowing down more often and focusing on subtle intimate details instead of events.

Alice in Azalia Dickson Park

Posted on by Thor

On performance day I went to Dickson Azalea Park (100 Rosegarden Dr) to see “Alice Takes Wonderland.” This production featured mostly middle school aged girls dancing and performing parts from Alice in Wonderland. Nao dance staged the production with Linda Eve Elchak the company’s founder and choreographer and Kim Matovina as the assistant director. When I left the rehearsal several days before, I was attracted to this view from a hill overlooking the action under the bridge.

Behind me to my right, the caterpillar was doing her contorted languid dance. I could just make her out through the trees. A crowd of mothers and children were being lead from one staging area to the next. They came to the Cheshire cat who was in a web entangled bridge. The white rabbit carrying her luggage crossed the creek quickly. She then waited near this larger bridge that I was drawing. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were up on wooden planks covered with pegs. They lounged inverted until Alice approached. Alice said good bye to the Cheshire Cat and all the children followed. There was quite a crowd, perhaps 20 to 30 people.

When they got to the large cement bridge, Alice asked all the children to stop at a line just short of the bridge because it would be dangerous to go any further. Alice coached the children to shout out, “Come on everybody!” to encourage stragglers to catch up. Tweedledee and Tweedledum got down off their pegboards and merrily sprayed the children with silly string. Alice shouted out, “Oh, I’m so sorry!” It was fun to see the children’s unrestrained reactions. Soon, Alice, the White Rabbit and Tweedledee an dum were doing an energetic chorus line dance under the bridge. Then everyone followed Alice and the White Rabbit further down the trail.

Later Linda walked back towards the start of the show. She shouted up to me, “One show down!” There were four more to go every hour. Tweedledee and Tweedledum collected all the silly string and made a bright line in the trail so the children knew where to stop for the next show. I finished the sketch as the second group made their way under the bridge. McClaine Timmerman and Daniel Joyce had just seen the show. McClaine is a choreographer and I had just sketched one of her Limit (ed/less) rehearsals. They walked up the hill and said hello. The dance community is a tight knit crowd, they all support each others productions.