November 7th Sketch Crawl at the Brownstone Inn

For the November crawl, we'll be sketching a piece of Cleveland that is slightly off the beaten path...but completely full of history. The historic Brownstone Inn is located on a stretch of Prospect Avenue in MidTown Cleveland that still maintains a glimpse of what the city was like in the early part of the last century. Old historic inn is an old mansion that was built in 1874 and now operates as a bed and breakfast.

We'll meet at the entrance to the Inn at 3649 Prospect Ave. The Inn keeper has graciously allowed us to come into the Inn and do some sketching. Guests will be at the B&B, so we'll have to be mindful of them as we sketch. I'm trying to get us a small tour (as i always do), but we'll have to see how busy Robin is with preparing breakfast for his guests.

You won't want to miss sketching the inside and the outside of this historic home! There are a number of historic buildings along prospect that are worth sketching...i'll point some of them out during the crawl. As always, the Cleveland Sketch Crawl is from 10am - 12noon. See you there!

2009 - 2010 Sketch Crawl Schedule is here.....finally!
I have our new schedule for the next 6 months:

December 5th
Cleveland Public Library Main Branch
Downtown

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January 9th
Tyler Village
St. Clair Superior Neighborhood
Due to the New Year holiday, we will get together on the second Saturday

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February 6th
The Rainforest at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

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March 6th
The Lofts at Tremont Place
(Gospel Press Building)

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April 3rd
St. Patrick's Parish on Bridge Ave
Ohio City

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May 1st
The Steamship William G. Mather Museum
North Coast Harbor

October Sketch Crawl - Tremont

This month, we'll be crawling through Cleveland's Tremont Neighborhood. Sorry for the late notice. I just heard that my original location for this month (Dock 32 and the historic trolleys) fell through. We weren't able to get anyone to open the warehouse for us. That is still on our radar though. It really is a great location and I am determined to get us in!

Anyway, back to Tremont! This is such a great neighborhood to sketch...so many great buildings and awesome stores to check out as well. We will be doing some walking for this sketch crawl, so be prepared.

We'll meet at the corner of Professor and College Avenues. We'll do a bit more of speed sketching for this sketch crawl (by speed i simply mean we won't spend an hour for each sketch). We'll start at that intersection and work our way down College towards Lincoln Park, then loop back down Starkweather and finish by walking back up Professor towards our starting point.

Points of interest that we'll see:
Lincoln Park
Civilizations Coffee
Visible Voice Books
Lilly's Handmade Chocolates
Luckies Cafe (great coffee and urban garden)
St. Theodosius

As always the Sketch Crawl is from 10am - 12noon, but you are more than welcome to stay and sketch as long as you like :)

By the way, if you want to be part of our mailing list, email me at jtaylor@dcacleveland.net

Detroit Superior Subway Bridge Tour

photo by Chris Rembold: Photo Challenge 2008

On September 5th, the we will be exploring one of my favorite locations in the city, the lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. Even though it is open about 3 times a year, this is still one of the most hidden places in the city. Amazingly...too many people have never taken advantage of these "open houses".

The lower level of the bridge offers some extremely unique perspectives of the river, warehouse district, Downtown and Ohio City. In addition to the views, there are several exhibits on Cleveland's street car past.

We will meet at 10am on the north side of the bridge, on the west edge of the bridge (just off W.25th). For a map of our meeting location, click here

Bring your camera along with your sketch book for this one! There are tons of great views. Not to mention that span of the bridge that is just see through metal grate....see through all the way to the river, over 100 feet below!!

Open Air in Market Square!

No, no, no....it isn't going to be snowing this Saturday! I just wanted to show a cool picture of the Market.

We'll be sketch crawling through Market Square, which is directly across from the West Side Market. We will meet at the corner of Market Ave. and W.25th at 10am. For this month, Karen Sandstrom will be leading the crawl. As many of you know, my wife and I are expecting our first born and the due date is actually August 1st! From the looks of things...we might not make it to Saturday. So...Karen has agreed to lead the crawl.

As always the Cleveland Sketch Crawl takes place the first Saturday of every month, from 10am - 12noon.

Next month, on September 5th, we'll be crawling through the lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. We've done this location for the crawl before and it has been a huge hit! The Cuyahoga County Engineers open this lower level of the bridge up 3 times a year to the general public. It really offers some unique perspectives of the city and the river. Plus there are exhibits from Cleveland's Street Car past.

check out more about these tours here

On September 12th, the 7th annual Sparx City Hop will be taking place from 12noon - 12midnight. Over 8 different neighborhoods around and in Downtown will be connected by free trolleys! This is a perfect time to sketch crawl through the city and explore.

You can park once and explore the Warehouse District, Gateway District, the Quadrangle, St. Clair Superior, Asiatown, Midtown, Tremont, Ohio City, and the Old Superior Viaduct in the Flats!

check www.cleveland.com/sparx for more information

July 11th Sketch Crawl Rained out

Due to the severe storms and torrents of rain this morning, the sketch crawl has been cancelled. If anyone went to the E.14th and Euclid entance to Ingenuity, I was there till about 12:20. I hope I didn't miss you. Of couse, now it's sunny out side... Ahh Murphys Law of summer.

Next month the Sketch Crawl will be at the West Side Market. Open Air in Market Square will be taking place...it should be a great crawl!

We will be back to our normal time (10 till 12noon) on the first Saturday of the month.

See you then!

-- Post From My iPhone

Sketch Crawl at Ingenuity

First - I need to start off with the "I-can't-believe-i-didn't-update-my-blog-on-the-July-Sketch-Crawl-date-and-location" apology. So.....i'm sorry for my delay in letting you all know.

Just for the month of July, we have bumped our Sketch Crawl to the second week of the month (which is tomorrow). The Crawl will be taking place this Saturday at a special time, from 12noon - 2pm. We will be sketch crawling our way through the Ingenuity Festival! Those participating in the sketch crawl will receive free admittance into the festival. This will provide a unique and challenging environment to sketch in...more than just stationary items....crowds and activities as well!

Meet at the entrance to the festival at the intersection of E.14th and Euclid (near Star Plaza in PlayhouseSquare).

To check out the festival and all there is to see and draw...click here

Environmental Sketching at Wendy Park

I am really excited about this Saturday's sketch crawl. Not only is Wendy Park a unique and relaxing location, but it is one of those hidden locations that feels like you are a part of something special because you are there.

The park represents one of the key portions of parkland along the lakefront that will be connected by the Ohio & Erie Canal's Towpath Trail. Wendy Park itself has a master plan for redevelopment, but it still offers a completely different view of the skyline than most Clevelanders have seen and is an interesting contrast to the industry that surrounds it.

Getting there
As I mentioned, Wendy Park is hidden. Click on the map below to get a view of how to get there.