Orlando Drink and Draw ventures to a new bar each month to sample beers and sketch. There is no model fee and no instruction. This is just a chance to get out, meet fellow artists and draw.
Big Daddy’s (Orlando
3001 Corrine Dr, Orlando, Florida 32803) is a traditional dive bar in the Audubon District. New owner Frankie Guerrero has made some amazing improvements including a new game room and additional table seating area.
This ODD event wasn’t very crowded, but quality artists showed up like Audrey Zindler, Noga Grossman and also Wendy Wallenberg. The place had the rich thick smell of cigarettes which for me was a draw back. I breathed shallow as I sketched. My goal has always been to find Orlando’s true dive bars and I have to live with some smoke to get some of these sketches on location. My clothes had a good washing when I got home.
The space reminded me of the strangely sinister pool room Vincent Van Gogh painted in the south of France as he slowly lost his mind. At the time of this sketch I was contemplating separation and a few weeks later I had left. It is almost two years since I left and the divorce is still held up as the value of my art work is being argued. Most of my sketches are in hard bound sketchbooks which are impossible to sell since there is another sketch on the back of each page.