Every Sunday at Crealde there is a sketch class from 10AM to 12:30PM. I write it in my calender every week but usually there is some other arts related event that I end up going to sketch. This week they places one of my Crealde sketches on the invitation so I made an extra effort to show some solidarity and I headed out to the class.
The class starts out with 2 minute gestures then 5e minute gestures. By the end of the class the model is taking 20 minute poses. I started the sketch by blocking in a 5 minute gesture of the model on her stand. Then for the rest of the class I focused on the artists as they concentrated on the task at hand. The model named Jenny looked familiar to me but I couldn’t figure out where I had seen her before. Half way through the class when she was on a break I finally shouted out, “You were Alice!” She admitted that she had modeled for a group called “Sketchy Broads.”
There is another sketching event in town called “Dr. Sketchy’s.” A lot of new people going to Dr. Sketchy’s were really confused about the two sketching events– they had similar names, similar themes, they were both on Wednesdays, etc. Artists started thinking Sketchy Broads and Dr. Sketchy were the same group, or would get dates confused, showing up at Tatame (where Dr. Sketchy’s is usually held) on the wrong night. Because of this confusion, Molly Crabaapple who is the head of Dr. Sketchy’s, sent Jenny an e-mail explaining how Dr. Sketchy’s is a notable world-wide brand, and how there’s been confusion between the events, so she asked if Jenny could change the name. “Sketchy Broads” is now called “The Notorious Unnamed Sketch Club.” I plan to head out to their next event called “Lions Lindsays and Bears…Oh My!” on Wednesday, June 23rd at 6:30PM to 9:00PM at Stardust Video and Coffee. I like that new venues like this are popping up.
Since I kept working on this sketch even through the breaks, I never had a chance to see any other artists work. There were perhaps about 10 artists at the session. I need to go back more often to just sketch the model and experiment with different ways of working. Sketching the nude figure is always a great way to charge the creative battery.
Crealde Welcome Garden Mosaic
At the last minute I decided to go to Crealde in Winter Park for a Sunday morning sketch class. When I got to the school I saw this mosaic being created and I stopped in my tracks and wanted to draw. I had come to draw from a model however, so I went into the studio and started to set up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the mosaic being created right outside the door. The model was a beautiful young girl but I finally decided to pack up my supplies and I went outside to sketch the artist at work. Her name is Lynn Tomlinson. She worked non stop for well over two hours. She would use the snippers to snip tiles and then slather on the fixative or cement and set the tile in place. The whole design was already drawn out and much of her attention on this day was devoted to placing bright yellow and orange tiles around the school name. Lynn said that she had designed the mural along with Nicki Pierson.
The Crealde Welcome Garden Mosaic is being created to celebrate Crealde’s 35th anniversary. All the funds for the mural’s creation came from grassroots fund raising. The mosaic has been in the works for many months now. Artists have been pressing tiles as a way to raise money for the project. An individual could press a tile for just $20 and a business could sponsor a tile for $100. These sponsored tiles are the green oval shapes in the sketch. The mosaic is taking shape quickly thanks to the many volunteers and artists who have worked together collaborating at every step in the process. I have no doubt that the next time I stop out for a sketch class, this mosaic will be finished. Besides the mosaic, recent renovations to the campus were funded by a recent $100,000 grant from the Orange County Cultural Affairs Council for a campus facelift, including a new entry that extends into an attractive patio area and beautiful landscaping bought out to the front of the property. All these changes are a huge milestone for Crealde.
Crealde Sculpting
I avoided looking directly at the welding arc as I did this sketch. Several finished pieces can be seen to the left. Crealde is right on a lake and I could hear some Moore Hens as they swam by. As usual, I tucked myself into one of the few shady spots when I sat down to sketch. When it was lunch time I walked to the Publix which is next door with one of the artists named Heather. She explained to me why she became a representational artist. Her mother was schizophrenic and she would sometimes tell Heather it was time for bed even though it was far to early for bedtime. This caused her to question many things from a very early age, the most important being, “What is reality?” I thought this was one of the more interesting reasons for becoming an artist.
The activity in the workshop was loud and constant. Artists were grinding, filing, welding, burnishing and hammering. I could have stayed all afternoon but I decided two sketches was enough for a hot day in the Florida sun.
Crealde Welding Workshop
I got a tip from a friend of Mary Ann de Stefano, named Lynn Warnicke that I might find a Crealde Welding Workshop and interesting subject for sketching. Lynn was right on the money, the workshop was a feast for the eyes.The instructor, David Cumbie, welcomed me and said I could sketch anywhere with one warning, “do not look directly at the welders arcs”. Well that gave me a bit of a fright so this first sketch involves no welding. Here an artist is fitting metal pieces together trying to discover the shape they are meant to form. Metal bits and pieces are lying everywhere, resembling a junkyard. One mans junk is an artists palette. In the foreground a horses ears are formed by railroad spikes.
While doing this sketch a photographer set up an old accordion camera in the entry to the workshop. You can just barley see the camera in the upper left corner of the sketch. Later the photographer showed me a Daguerreotype he had taken of me while I was sketching. It was a beautiful image in rusty browns and my head was slightly blurred from my glancing my subject then the page. It is one of the best images I have ever seem of myself at work. It gave me a ghostly appearance like I had materialized from another time.