Urban Sketching Symposium Day 1

Posted on by Thor

Upon landing in Santo Domingo I had to get a $10 Tourist card and then navigate through customs. Orling “Arty” Dominguez had arranged for a ride to the hotel which was a blessing since I don’t know a lick of Spanish. This was the first time I’ve ever hoped to find someone holding a sign with my name on it. There was quite a crowd lining the entry to the airport. After much hunting and a quick call to Orling, I found a young woman with a sign that said, “Thor.”

The road from the airport to the hotel snaked along the black lava rock coastline.  There were occasional water blow holes.  The cinder block roadside shacks and bodegas reminded me of Panama. The local driver wasn’t that familiar with the one way roads throughout the historic district, so we got quite a tour as he drove a Nautilus shell pattern towards the hotel. Within an hour of getting settled in the air conditioned hotel room, I had to find my way to Centro Cultural de España for an instructors meeting.

There was a swag bag full of donated sketchbooks from Strathmore, Canson and Stillman & Birn. A map showing where each of the workshops would be held, was a major help. People would meet at the Centro Cultural and then hike out to the workshop locations.

After the meeting, Lapin pulled me aside and asked if he could draw me. I was surprised with how close he wanted to sit as he sketched. We sketched each other and I was surprised that he finished before me. Getting to watch him work was a major thrill. Later that evening there was a Portrait Party, Ice-breaker at Quintana Bar, (C/ Atarazana #13, Zona Colonial, In front of Plaza Espana.) We all sat in an outdoor courtyard, adding more chairs and tables as artists arrived. The waitress did a good job with the first round of drinks, but soon she couldn’t keep up with the demand. About one hundred artists were signed up for the Symposium and I swear they all tried to squeeze into that small courtyard. It was incredibly exciting to be around artists whose work I have admired for so long.

Karen Russell Opening

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I went to the opening reception of Karen Russell‘s solo art show at Sam Flax (1800 East Colonial Drive) on July 9th. I arrived straight from my job at Full Sail. I had to buy a few brushes for my trip to Santo Domingo. I bumped into Karen and her friend George as I was shopping. Karen let me know that she had crackers and that spray on Easy Cheese. How awesome! I haven’t had Easy Cheese since I was a kid. This was turning out to be quite an auspicious  pinky raised affair. Karen had to run out to get a few more supplies for the opening.

Since I was early, I started sketching the room, leaving a few open spots for arts patrons when they arrived. I spoke with the store owner for a while and I’m very happy that he is now stocking quality sketchbooks.  Half of the Stillman & Birn sketchbooks had sold from the floor display that he had picked up from the Namta Art Supply Convention at the Orlando Convention Center about a month ago. He has started stocking the new quality sketchbooks from Canson and Strathmore as well. As he said, “This is the year of the sketchbook.”

Karen was dressed all in black, with oil paint dabbed all over her calves. She returned with a supply of Communion wafers. Gordon Spears tried one and he said it tasted a bit like an ice cream cone or Styrofoam. I tried a small white wafer as well, letting it dissolve on the roof of my mouth. Karen suggested that they taste better with Easy Cheese. I never did try that combo. Being Jewish, my wife Terry wondered if she would go to hell for tasting a wafer. Some guy told her that it wasn’t too late to save her soul. She avoided him the rest of the evening. Terry had Karen paint a nude of her. The angular painting stares at me as I try to go to sleep at night. Terry joked that we should buy all the paintings and then sell them for thousands of dollars more down at Art Basel in Miami. A store clerk talked about how locals don’t buy art. He knew of a couple from Orlando who purchased some art in a Chicago art gallery. The art was by an Orlando artist. They said that they never buy art in Orlando. “For some reason, people only appreciate art north of the Mason Dixie Line.” he said.

People sat in all the black “Darth Vader” studio chairs on display. A friend of Karen’s showed off all the abrasions and bruises she got at a “Sui-slide” party she had been at. Another woman had a broken finger. Darn, I knew about that party and didn’t go to sketch. I could kick myself. The model for one the paintings liked how she looked on the wall with a flower in her hair. Jokingly, she lamented the hunch back and saggy boobs. A couple bought the smallest painting for $65. A green dot went on the label. I love Karen’s work. The harsh knuckled fingers and angular figures remind me of Viennese Expressionistic art prior to the world wars. This show is on display through July 23rd.

The Year of the Sketchbook

Posted on by Thor

I spent three days at the Namta Art Materials World International Conference and Trade Show at the Orange County Convention Center. The floor was never really packed, but there was a constant flurry of activity at the Stillman & Birn booth. The line of quality sketchbooks were introduced at last year’s conference and they must have made an impression. The sketchbooks cost a bit more, but people are realizing that artists are willing to pay more for the quality. Paper matters, feel the difference. When Michael Kalman showed a colleague one of the early sketchbook, he was told, “You hit a home run with the paper.”

A person stopping by the Stillman & Birn booth said, “This is the year of the sketchbook, I half expect the easel manufacturers to introduce a new line of sketchbooks.”  This year, Strathmore and Canson both introduced new lines of quality hardbound sketchbooks. These new line of sketchbooks are scheduled to hit stores in July. I went to the Strathmore booth and thumbed through the prototype sketchbooks. A sales manager explained the different lines, paper weights and page surfaces. What really mattered to me wasn’t the numbers or convoluted naming conventions, I wanted to see how the paper held up to lines and washes. I already know that the Stillman & Birn books make my work sing so I’ve developed product loyalty.

Jason Das, an Urban Sketcher from Brooklyn NY was flown to the Convention by Stillman & Birn so he could work the floor looking for sponsors for the Urban Sketching Symposium in July. Jason stopped by the booth and I got a chance to flip through his most recent sketchbook. I get a visceral thrill from seeing artists sketchbooks. There is no pretense of existential artistic concepts, just raw sincere observation. Another artist named Donald Owen Colley was working at the Faber Castell booth. He uses Faber Castell Pitt brush pens to do his drawings in old ledgers. The book he was drawing in was from the 1860s. The pens are good for putting down warm and cool gray tones. I picked up a few Pitt pens and immediately started playing with them. The bold blacks in this sketch were put down with a black Pitt pen. Owen was hit by a car as he was walking in the International Drive area. Florida almost killed him. There were artists painting and sketching in many of the booths. I felt like a kid in a toy store.