The St. Pete Crawl

YAY! The St. Pete Crawl was a success, and a lot of fun for the folks that made it out for the evening. A big thanks goes out to both Chris Jenkins, St. Pete artist and resident whose blog is here, and the lovely Jo Ellen Schilke at the funkadelic Globe Coffee Lounge for making the arrangements and setting it all up for us to enjoy.

I headed down to downtown St. Pete with my 11-year-old daughter, Kayli, and we had a nice time catching up with the other folks who came out for the crawl, as well as -of course- drawing!

A good friend of mine, artist Brian Young-who co-created the Peace Be Still mural with me at Unity Church of Palm Harbor- came down with his daughter Kelly, who is an amazing talent, and Kayli and I had fun sketching in fairly close proximity to them all evening.

Kelly and Kayli persuaded us to try out the somewhat locally famous "red chairs" for size. Artist Douglas Kornfeld created these whimsical interactive sculptures which are located in the lawn of the St Petersburg Judicial center at 545 First Avenue North. The piece is titled Face the Jury. Here are some pics of Brian and the girls in the red chairs.... Kayli mentioned that she had always wanted to climb up on them, so I am glad we had some part in helping her achieve one of her stepping-stone goals in life. Just one more fun "to do" we could help her check off her quite-long list.

I seemed to be more into chatting with the other artists and dreaming about my upcoming trip to New York then drawing, but I managed to squeak these two spreads out during the crawl.

I know that I will drawing and painting my brains out for one glorious week beginning tomorrow, so I didn't worry that I lacked focus. More on my NY trip in the next post...

I tried to manage a few quick sketches while in the Globe, but I was distracted and my subjects were moving, of course. I just didn't feel up to the challenge of working too hard on them, so we moved on down the street after Kelly finished her coffee.

I settled in at the old Post Office, an open-air portico surrounding the post office building. This building has a lot of architectural detail- some tiling and ornate columns. I worked on capturing a bit of the detail, but again, being distracted by my thoughts, I didn't get into it too heartily.

We then moved on to the Mirror Lake area, where I settled down on the lawn in front of the Library. I worked a little on the building and also the statue that was out in front.

The sun was starting to go down and our stomachs were starting to grumble, so we got up and headed back to the Globe for a bite to eat. I had the Eggplant Parmesan wrap and Kayli had the Veggie Quiche- both good and affordable too. With our drinks, we spent only about $13 bucks total for dinner. Hooray for the Globe, still offering eats that don't break the bank.

With our sketchbooks in hand, we left the Globe to head back up to north Pinellas. The crawl was good, and we look forward to the next one! Y'all should think about coming on out for the next one we do. Keep posted, we'll announce something soon for September.

Grab Your Sketchbooks and C'mon!St. Pete, Florida SketchCrawl Planned

Hope you'll be able to join us for our 2nd official Tampa Bay Area SketchCrawl on Saturday July 12th, 2008!

It will be held in downtown St. Petersburg and will be an early evening crawl this time.

Artists of any and all levels are invited to join in and c'mon down for the crawl, which will begin at 4:00 PM at the cool and funky Globe Coffee Lounge, owned by JoEllen Schilke, host of the long-running radio show, WMNF 88.5 FM's Art in Your Ear.

We will meet at The Globe, 532 1st Ave. North, where we will get maps for those who would like them, and then begin our crawl. Here are directions to The Globe Coffee Lounge. From The Globe, either walk to the nearby points of interest for your sketching opportunities (linked below), or drive to other interesting spots nearby, like Beach Drive or the Pier.

Either way, you will want to be sure to come back to The Globe at 8:00 PM to share sketches with the other artists that were on the crawl. When we did the Dunedin crawl, everyone really enjoyed the part afterward where we got to know each other better and could see each others' work.

At the Globe, not only is there great coffee of all types, but there is great food as well. If you're hungry after the crawl, there are some yummy offerings on the Globe's menu to try. JoEllen will be offering SketchCrawlers free coffee with any $5.00 purchase of food or dessert, which we appreciate.

Here is a birds-eye view shot from Google Earth of the area near our meeting place. Below, I'll highlight some of the places that you might want to check out to draw on the crawl:

Some points of interest within walking distance of The Globe, most of which are historical buildings on the National Historic Register:

The State Theater

The Green-Richman Arcade

The Alexander Hotel

US Open Air Post Office, 400 1st Ave. North (shown below)
Also nearby is the historic S&H Kress and Co. Building at 475 Central avenue and the Snell Arcade/Rutland Building.

A short walk to the NW of the Globe Coffee Lounge, takes you to the pretty Mirror Lake area, with it's banyon trees, the historic Library Building, and the cool but crumbling 1920's St. Pete Lawn Bowling area- lots to sketch in that area.

If you rather go to Baywalk to sketch people bustling about, or the Pier or the Museum of Fine Arts/Beach Drive area or several others, you may prefer to drive, depending on how much of your time you want to walk.

If you need any other information, please contact Chris Jenkins, who generously set this all up for us, or you may contact me as well. If you want to get in touch, just leave a comment on the blog with your e-mail, or check back on the blog for my reply.

Or just show up- that's what I'm gonna do! See you there!

Dunedin Sketchcrawl Event, Saturday, June 21st, 2008

We will be enjoying our first organized Sketchcrawl for the Pinellas County area on Saturday, June 21st in charming downtown Dunedin.

I'll give you the basics here, and if you'd like to explore the whole world of sketchcrawling, be sure to visit Sketchcrawl.com to learn more about the concept and the 19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, which our event ties into.

What is a sketchcrawl?
It is a gathering of people who like to sketch, who get together for the day in a particular locale. Artists work however they like, either alone or in small groups, drawing whatever interests them. For the Dunedin Sketchcrawl, we will meet at 9:00 AM at the bandshell in Pioneer Park to get a map of the area with highlights of good sketching spots, and then we will have two opportunities to meet-up again for whoever would like to join us (Lunch at noon, afternoon snack/drink at 2:30 PM). Of course, everyone will pay for their own food and drinks.

Artists are welcome to come earlier or stay longer and can come and go as they please- there are really no rules. Whoever would like to meet-up for lunch or a drink can do so. It gives everyone an opportunity to meet each other and share drawings.

There are places both indoors and out to sketch, so you will not need to be out in the heat the whole time.



Here are some of the places of interest: (Click on the links for more photos of the area)
Our Meeting Place: Pioneer Park

Pictures of the Marina Area
First, there is a beautiful little park on the water, complete with a gazebo and view of the marina and its boats in the harbor. The park is a shady spot to sketch, and even in the hot months, a lovely breeze blows in from the Gulf. You can walk to the end of the pier and sketch there as well, where you will often see pelicans, egret and dolphins. If you are hankering for A/C, you can get something to drink inside Bon Appetit restaurant, adjacent to the pier.

People-watch along the Pinellas Trail

Here are some of the cute buildings and shops to sketch.

What should you bring?
Bring a sketchbook and any drawing or painting supplies you would like. Note: If you are planning to sketch indoors, please be respectful of the shop and restaurant owners, as they may not wish for you to have paints out in stores (even watercolors)- just ask first to be sure. Common sense prevails....


Other items to you may wish to bring:
A water bottle, sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, a folding stool (ie. fishing/camp stool), and camera.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me (Lori 727- 365-5575) or contact me (via comment feature on this blog) about the event.

If you arrive after 9:00 AM the day of the event and would still like to meet up with the group for lunch or afternoon get-together, we will be having lunch at Casa Tina Restaurant at noon and meeting up again at 2:30 for a wrap-up drink at Kelly's.

I know this will be a fun and art-filled day, so bring your creativity and c'mon and join us!

19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl- Are You Sketchcrawling Yet?

Saturday, June 21st marks the next Worldwide Sketchcrawl. If you're not sure exactly WHAT a sketchcrawl is, I have the site for you! Check out the Sketchcrawl site for the best and final word on all things"sketchcrawl."

In a nutshell, a sketchcrawl is a meeting-up of people who enjoy drawing and sketching what they see. They get together at a designated place and time, and spend part of a day or a whole day crawling the area and making sketches of whatever interests them. Some people sketch together and stay with the group, and others venture out on their own, but usually everyone comes back together to share the sketches they made with one another.

Check out the Sketchcrawl site to see what might be going on in your area. If nothing shows up in the forum, consider organizing a sketchcrawl group of your own to participate in the event. Of course you can sketchcrawl at any time, but it is fun to be a part of something big like this and see what others have done all over the world on the same day. Sketchers the world over upload their sketchbook entries from the crawl, and you can upload your pics as well!

I am organizing a sketchcrawl in the Tampa Bay area on the west coast of Florida to take place in downtown Dunedin, Pinellas County. I have not posted particulars yet, but it will take place on the same days as the 19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl on June 21, 2008. Here is my forum post, with what I have so far about the crawl in the Tampa Bay area. More will be posted as we get closer to the date, so check back there for more information. Please contact me via the blog if you are interested. We would love to have you in the group!

I am thinking of having anyone who wants to join us, meet at a still-to-be-decided location in Dunedin at 9:00 AM that day. We will sketch until lunchtime and meet-up to share, and for those who still want to keep going, have an afternoon crawl that goes until 3:00 or 4:00. We can meet at Kelley's for a 'tini, beer or a soda and look at the fruits of our labor at the end of the day.

I am psyched. I hope we get a good turnout for the crawl!