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Cleveland Area Sketch Groups

September 9, 2018

By Janet Dodrill

There are many good sketching groups in the Cleveland area, that I’ve found recently in my quest to start sketching again to brush up on my artistic skills with other artists! My search for groups started on Facebook and then by word of mouth. I started with a commitment of going to monthly sketch outings with Urban Sketchers Cleveland (see http://urbansketchers-cleveland.blogspot.com or http://www.facebook.com/groups/urbansketcherscleveland). It is a local chapter of the international organization Urban Sketchers. We sketch on location at different areas in the greater Cleveland area.

Recent sketch locations include:

Giant Hand Sculpture at MOCA
Voinovich Bicentennial Park at E. 9th St. Pier
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Grand Pacific Junction in Olmsted Falls
West Side Market
Renaissance Hotel
The Coffee House
Old Arcade
5th Street Arcades
Cavottas Garden Center
Chagrin Falls
Cleveland Flats Heritage Park
Cleveland Museum of Art
Dunham Tavern Museum
Lake View Cemetery
Merwins Wharf
Old Arcade
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
Rockefeller Park Greenhouse & Gardens
Spaces Gallery

Drawn To The Valley offers an adult open studio for figurative life drawing. The group has structured guidelines to agree to before joining the group.

Murray Hill Sketch Group has been meeting together for 25 years which offers a figure model for life drawing.

BAYArts Open Studio is a portrait sketch group from a portrait model. They also have a figurative life drawing sessions that meet on selected Tuesdays.

The Pretentious Cleveland Portrait Artists is popular in the area for portrait sketching. At the end of the evening, the artists give their art piece to the model in leu of a fee. They meet at different east or west side locations.

Fees vary from $10 to $15 per session.

I have posted some of my recent drawings and paintings.

Selected Cleveland Area Sketch Groups:

Urban Sketchers Cleveland
http://urbansketchers-cleveland.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/groups/urbansketcherscleveland
http://www.instagram.com/urbansketcherscleveland @urbansketcherscleveland
Meets monthly each 3rd or 4th Sunday, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

Drawn To The Valley
Valley Arts Center, 155 Bell Street, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
Meets Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
https://www.valleyartcenter.org/workshops.html
Fee

BAYArts Open Studio
BAYarts, Huntington Playhouse Dr., Bay Village, OH 44140
Portrait, Meets Fridays, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Figure, Meets Tuesdays (9/11, 9/25, 10/9, 10/23, 11/6, and 11/20/18), 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
http://bayarts.net/43-classes/adults/adults-classes-4/408-open-studio-sessions-portraits-figure.html
Fee

Cleveland Institute of Art, Pay-As-You-Go
11610 Euclid Ave., Room 302
Cleveland, OH 44106
Meets Wednesdays, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (current session 8/29/18 – 11/14/18)
https://www.cia.edu/continuing-education/life-drawing-classes
Fee

Murray Hill Sketch Group
Murray Hill School, 2026 Murray Hill Road, Cleveland, OH 44106
Meets Wednesdays, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/65156305856
Fee

The Pretentious Cleveland Portrait Artists
Meets Fridays, 7:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Locations include the following, but check their Facebook page before every Friday:
Artful, 2843 Washington Boulevard, 2nd Floor, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
OR
Waterloo Arts, 15605 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH 44110
https://www.facebook.com/groups/347696515301192

Murray Hill Sketch Group sketch.

BAYArts Open Studio portrait.

Sketch from Wandering Sketchers.

Personal nature sketch.

Murray Hill Sketch Group special event sketch.

Urban Sketchers Cleveland sketch.

Sketch from The Pretentious Cleveland Portrait Artists.

Sketch from Wandering Sketchers.

Urban Sketchers Cleveland sketch.

Drawn To The Valley study.

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Archibald Willard Painting Exhibit at The Spirit of ’76 Museum

July 23, 2018

By Janet Dodrill

Visit The Spirit of ’76 Museum in Wellington, Ohio to see the special exhibit of 22 of Archibald Willard’s paintings, from Dan Zivko’s collection, in honor of town’s bicentennial and 100 years since the artist’s death, through October 2018.

Resources:

The Spirit of ’76 Museum Thespiritof76museum.org

The Spirit of ’76 Museum in Wellington, Ohio.

Exhibit of 22 of Archibald Willard’s paintings at The Spirit of ’76 Museum through October 2018.

Spirit of ’76 Statue at The Spirit of ’76 Museum.

Archibald M. Willard in his early 40s.

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The Spirit of ’76 Statue

June 16, 2018

By Janet Dodrill

Statue of Spirit of ’76 by Archibald Willard (Schmitz family archives).

An unusual object has been passed down in the family – a “Spirit of ’76” statue. I had know little about it, even after showing it to three local auction houses, until one day a couple months ago. I believed it had been given to my great-grandfather, Hugo M. Schmitz, by Archibald Willard, the Ohio artist who painted the Spirit of ’76. The two met in the late 1800s and both attended and exhibited at Cleveland’s Art Club, of which Willard was president.

The porcelain statue measures approximately 11″ W x 12″ H and is hand-painted.

Because of my mention of it in my 2/27/2017 blog post, my image of the statue shows up in a Google search for “spirit of 76 statue,” which may be how a woman in Texas came to contact me regarding her similar statue. What are the odds?

The Spirit of ’76 statue owned by the Texas woman, who contacted me in April, 2018.

The woman sent photos and provided a link to the Bedford Historical Society, in Bedford, Ohio (Archibald Willard’s birthplace), who apparently also owns a statue and has a web page about the manufacturer. The page states that the statue was manufactured by the Bailey-Walker China company in 1926 (which became the Walker China company in 1942) of Bedford, Ohio. Her statue was almost identical to ours. And after a trip to the Bedford museum I was able to confirm that theirs was also the same. (I learned at the museum that Willard’s own father was the model for the center drummer figure.)

The Bedford Historical Society, in the historic former town hall building, Bedford, Ohio.

Additional information had been passed down to the Texas woman by her grandmother regarding her statue in a note which she shared with me. It said that Bailey-Walker China produced a limited edition of 100 of these statues, made of fine china, which sold for $40 a piece at the time, and some retailers offered them for $120. Some of the statues went to Europe.

However, now the idea that our statue had been given to my great-grandfather is in question because Archibald Willard died in 1918, eight years before the statue is known to have been produced. Was ours a prototype made years in advance of production? it is signed on the bottom, and the other two aren’t. That would explain things. Or was it given to my grandfather, Warren R. Schmitz, maybe by Mr. Willard’s family? Who acquired it from where, and when? These are questions from the past that are fun to unravel, as I continue to learn about it.

Spirit of ’76 statue manufactured by the Bailey-Walker China company, owned and on display at the Bedford Historical Society, which I visited in April, 2018.

The grandmother’s note also said that when those who possess the statue are known to each other it is hoped to cement a very warm and lasting friendship.

So far we know there are two in Ohio and one in Texas! Are there any more out there?

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Cooper Hewitt’s Object of the Day, Schmitz-Horning Co. 1913-1914 Catalogue

March 11, 2018

By Janet Dodrill

The Outside Comes Inside, Cooper Hewitt’s Object of the Day, the Schmitz-Horning Company Catalogue.

Cooper Hewitt’s recent Object of the Day (December 17, 2017), The Outside Comes Inside, featured Schmitz-Horning Company’s San-Kro-Mura wall decoration catalogue from 1913-1914.

The Object of the Day webpage contains color images of selected catalogue pages and a brief audio recording about it and the company.

The Schmitz-Horning Company, established in 1905 in Cleveland, Ohio, designed and manufactured full-color chromolithograph high quality washable wall coverings, murals, decorative room panoramics, and friezes.

The wall decoration catalogue is available as part of an “adoption” program to gain funding to support the preservation of this book and others at the museum.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum currently has over 100 pieces in their collection from the Schmitz-Horning Company – the major collection was a gift from the Wallpaper Council, Inc. of New York, NY.

Schmitz-Horning was co-founded by Hugo M. Schmitz (my great-grandfather) and William Horning, artists and lithographers. It is believed the two became acquainted in the late 1800s in and around the Cleveland Art Club and artist’s community. Mr. Horning sold his interest in the company in 1920. Around 1926, Warren R. Schmitz (my grandfather), became vice president of the firm and assisted in company sales. In 1938 he became president of the company until it closed in 1960.

The Forest wall mural theme, Schmitz-Horning Co., 1914 catalogue

Hollyhocks wall mural theme, Schmitz-Horning Co. 1914 catalogue.

Selected Schmitz-Horning Company Links at Cooper Hewitt:

Cooper Hewitt’s recent Object of the Day (December 17, 2017) The Outside Comes Inside, Schmitz-Horning Co. 1913-1914 Catalogue
cooperhewitt.org/2017/12/17/the-outside-comes-inside

The Schmitz-Horning Co.
collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18046573

Cooper Hewitt WALLCOVERINGS
cooperhewitt.org/tag/wallcoverings

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Urban Sketchers

February 28, 2018

By Janet Dodrill

Sketching with other artists over the past year has been a worthwhile experience. I discovered Urban Sketchers Cleveland chapter on Facebook. After participating in the group’s monthly sketch outings at various locations, I learned about the Urban Sketchers international organization.

I’ve posted some recent sketches, and included information about the group below.

Urban Sketchers is a network of artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel to. Our mission is to “Show the World, One Drawing at a Time.” Visit our main blog at www.urbansketchers.org for more information.

Sketchers in the Cleveland area share their drawings at www.facebook.com/groups/urbansketcherscleveland and www.urbansketchers-cleveland.blogspot.com.

OUR MANIFESTO

1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.

2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.

3. Our drawings are a record of time and place.

4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness.

5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.

6. We support each other and draw together.

7. We share our drawings online.

8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt: This organization is turning drawing into a social pastime. Jan 20, 2018 – With more than 200 chapters worldwide, Urban Sketchers is helping people meet up and sketch together, taking what was once a solitary hobby and turning it into a social one. www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/this-organization-is-turning-drawing-into-a-social-pastime-1141734979947

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

5th Street Arcade, Cleveland, Ohio.

Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

Renaissance Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio.

Rockefeller Greenhouse & Gardens, Cleveland, Ohio.

Heritage Park, The Flats, Cleveland, Ohio.

The Arcade, Cleveland, Ohio.

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William Horning, Schmitz-Horning Co., Artist and Lithographer

December 22, 2017

By Janet Dodrill

William Horning, Floral Still Life, oil on canvas, 27″ x 33″

William Horning, was a partner of the Schmitz-Horning Company, a lithographic wall covering and mural manufacturing firm in Cleveland, Ohio founded around 1905.

His name appeared on a 1906 patent for a printed repeat pattern wall frieze (US 830931 A), along with that of Hugo Max Schmitz I (my great-grandfather), and Warren R. Cox (family friend and head salesman).

William (Bill) Horning was a Cleveland area artist and lithographer, in addition to Hugo.

He sold his interest in Schmitz-Horning around 1920, but continued to work in the printing industry in the Cleveland area.

He was referred to as a landscape, marine, and animal painter of Cleveland (Cuyahoga area), and exhibited with the Cleveland Art Club and the Water Color Society of Cleveland starting in 1894. He led and evening sketch class at the Cleveland Art Club in 1895. That is around the time that my great grandfather Hugo M. Schmitz, who moved to Cleveland from Wisconsin, attended the group. They may have met there before starting Schmitz-Horning Co. not long thereafter.

In 1930 he participated in an exhibition of water colors by members of the Cleveland Society of Artists, a group who held member exhibits semi-annually. Carl Broemel, who created art for many murals for Schmitz-Horning, also had paintings in the exhibit, and incidentally was hired by my grandparents to paint an oil portrait of my mother as a young girl.

The floral oil painting by William Horning shown sold from the Baldwin-Wallace College collection at Rachel Davis Fine Arts auction in 2009.

Sources:

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday, January 26, 1930

Rachel Davis Fine Arts

Liveauctioneers.com

Photo: Rachel Davis Fine Arts

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The Inktober Pledge

October 3, 2017

By Janet Dodrill

This October I took the Inktober pledge!

The Inktober Initiative was the idea of Jake Parker, established illustrator, to commit to ink drawing practice everyday for the month of October. Started in 2009, the event is practiced by artists around the world, and has official rules and daily idea prompt list to follow. Ink drawings are to be posted to social media on a regular basis using the this year’s hashtags, #inktober and #inktober2017.

I am posting my Inktober drawings to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google +. I enjoy being part of this creative endeavor and all 31 drawings will be posted here as the month progresses. This gives me the opportunity to practice sketching and drawing.

To learn more about Inktober, see Jake Parker’s website at www.mrjakeparker.com/inktober.