August 3, 2019 sketchout

Thanks to Yvonne Rezek for organising this sketchout at historic, and sadly about to be demolished, Ritchie School.

Ritchie School was built in the 1920s and served generations of students in the Ritchie area. It is slated for demolition this year to make way for a new francophone school for the area. Apparently, construction has already begun. This sketch crawl may be your last chance to capture a piece of Edmonton’s fleeting history.

Meet at Ritchie School at 11am (9735 75 Ave). After sketching is finished, we will meet at the Blue Chair Cafe at 9624 76 Ave NW for lunch or snacks. In case of inclement weather, we will meet at the Blue Chair at 11:00 and sketch there. It is a great sketching venue in its own right.

Hope to see you there.

 

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Al Rashid Mosque, Fort Edmonton Park 6 July 2019

The rain held off for our adventure as 17 sketchers made our way past the construction of the upgrade and enhancement project at Fort Edmonton Park. Thanks to the Park staff for giving us special permission to sketch the historic Al Rashid Mosque while the Park is closed.

Sketch by Karen Wall

Sketches by Angie Sotiropoulos

The Al Rashid Mosque was built in 1938 – the first in Canada. As stated in the website, A New Life in a New Land, “In the early 1930s, the total Muslim population in Canada was 645, with highest concentrations in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Edmonton was home to the largest Muslim community whose members became increasingly concerned about preserving and passing on their faith and traditions to their children.”

Sketch by Florian Beltran, Age 9

Sketch by Berta Beltran

The proposal and fundraising to build the mosque was led by local Muslim women, most notably Hilwie Hamdon, after whom an Edmonton Public School has been named.

Sketch by Karen Wall

The Al Rashid Mosque bears some resemblance to the style of a Russian Orthodox Church. The Muslim community hired a Ukrainian-Canadian builder, Mike Drewoth, for the construction of the mosque.

Sketch by Brenda Raynard

Sketches by Asma Burney

Sketches by Marlena Wyman (in my second sketch, the crescents ended up looking like chickens!)

Sketch by Janet Bertsch 

Sketches by Julie Daly

Sketches by Yvonne Rezek

Sketches by Luise Mendler-Johnson

The Al Rashid Mosque was built on the corner of 101^st Street and 108^th Avenue in Edmonton, but was relocated to 102^nd Street and 111^th Avenue in 1946 to make way for the expansion of Victoria Composite High School. In 1975, a new, larger mosque was built and in 1988, the original mosque was under threat of demolition. A proposal and fundraising to move the mosque to Fort Edmonton Park was again led by local Muslim women.  The 1938 Mosque was formally opened at Fort Edmonton Park on May 28^th, 1992.

The sketchers also made their way around to a couple of nearby sites in Fort Edmonton Park.

Sketch by Terry Elrod of the Capitol Theatre and Selkirk Hotel on 1920 Street

Sketch by Karen Wall of the same scene, with construction machinery

Sketch by Angie Sotriopoulos of the Fort Edmonton Park Midway

Sketch by Julie Daly of Fort Edmonton Park’s recreation of the Silver Heights Peony Garden. The original garden was situated on 5 acres of land in the Bonny Doon area. It operated as a garden and business by Dr. James Brander  from 1921 to 1949.  If you live anywhere from Vancouver to Winnipeg and have peonies in your garden, they are very likely descendants of peonies from Dr. Brander’s Silver Heights Peony Garden in Edmonton.

Sketch by Lucy Rachynski. Lucy turned around and sketched into the past at Fort Edmonton Park. The gray building on the right is the J.B. Little Brickyard on 1920 Street. On the left is Ramsay’s Greenhouse, and in the centre distance is Reed’s Bazaar and Tea Shop, both on 1905 Street.

 Posted by Marlena Wyman

Information sourced from the Edmonton City as Museum website

 

 

July 6, 2019 sketchout

Thanks to the kind permission of Fort Edmonton Park staff, we will be sketching historic Al-Rashid, the first mosque built in Canada in 1938.

NOTE: We will meet at 10:45am at the gates to the left of the Train Station/Main Entrance. Because Fort Edmonton Park is closed for rehab construction, there is no wandering through the rest of the park. A Park Host will meet us and escort us to and from the sketching site.

 

The W. Ramsay Greenhouse will be our alternate rain-out location in Fort Edmonton Park, from which the mosque and some other Park buildings can be seen.

 

Due to the Fort Edmonton Park closure, there are no food services on site, so bring a picnic lunch and at 1pm we will go next door to the picnic tables at Whitemud Park.

 

The entrances to both Fort Edmonton Park and Whitemud Park are off Fox Drive. (See map below)

 

For those taking transit, there is a bus stop near Fort Edmonton Park Road at Fox Drive, and then a 10 minute walk to the Park gate. For lunch, we can either walk (about 15 minutes) to Whitemud Park or we can drive (and arrange car rides for anyone without a car).

Historic Highlands 1 June 2019

One of our biggest groups of sketchers (27 of us!) gathered in historic Highlands on a beautiful sunny day. We were joined by several people from the neighbourhood – some of whom said they had never sketched before – and they all turned out great sketches.  Thanks to Enessa Habib and the Highlands Historical Society for inviting us to sketch here and for helping to plan the day.

We all met at the Owen house at 11227 63 St and set up on the sidewalk across from the house. Thankfully, no one parked in front of us so we had a great view!

Sketches by Yvonne Rezek

Sketch by Berta Beltran

Sketch by Asma Burney

Sketch by Beth George

Sketch by Justin Jusilla

Sketch by Eleanor English MAcAllister

Sketch by Janet Bertsch

Sketch by Jason Waselenko

Sketch by Jessica Lui

Sketches by Merts Belmes

The two-story Four Square house was built in 1912. In 1915, Herbert and Eda Owen moved in. Herbert worked as a meteorologist and the house served as the Dominion Meteorological Service Office. When Herbert left to fight in WW I, Eda took over his duties, and when he died overseas in 1917, she became official weather station manager and worked until 1943.  She was the only woman in Canada to hold such a position, although she did not receive the pay that a man in the same position did. The house was designated a provincial historical resource in 1993. Further information about Eda and the house can be found here.

Sketch by Angie Sotiropoulos (Bell house on left, Owen house in centre)

Some of us wandered and sketched through other beautiful parts of the neighbourhood. I ended up at McLuhan House at 11342 64 Street. This house was built in 1912 in the Arts and Crafts style for Herbert and Elsie McLuhan, the parents of Marshall McLuhan. They lived there until they moved to Winnipeg in 1918 when Marshall was four years old.  They continued to own the house until 1923.  The McLuhan house was designated a municipal historic resource in 2013, and was acquired by the Edmonton Arts Council. It now serves as Arts Habitat Edmonton’s offices and artist-in-residence program. More information about the house can be found here and more information about Marshall McLuhan can be found here.

Sketch by Marlena Wyman

Some of us gathered afterward for a delicious lunch on the patio of the Highlands Golf Club, with a beautiful view of the river valley.

Posted by Marlena Wyman

 

June 1, 2019 sketchout

Thanks to the Highlands Historical Society for inviting us to sketch in historic Highlands for our June 1st sketchout. We will meet at 11 AM in front of the Owens Residence at 11227-63 Street. (Rain out, Highlands Junior High 11509 62 St).

At 1PM, we will retire to the Highlands Golf Club (6603 Ada Blvd) to share sketches and good company. Drinks and food are available for purchase.

For more details see the Highlands Historical Society event.

See you there!

Eda Owen in her backyard, Highlands, Edmonton 1916. Glenbow Archives photo NA-4844-11

Royal Alberta Museum 4 May 2019

Urban Sketchers Edmonton got inspired by the beautiful new Royal Alberta Museum on the May 4th sketchout, with lunch afterward at the Museum Cafe.

Sketch by Brenda Raynard

Mammoth/mastodon? skeletons provided ancient models.

Sketch by Yvonne Rezek

Sketch by Angie Sotiropoulos

Sketch by Julie Daley

Human history…

Sketch by Jason Waselenko

Sketch by Lysia Waselenko, Age 11

Sketch by Angie Sotiropoulos

Sketch by Karen Wall

Sketch by Brenda Raynard

Sketch by Andrea Ch

…and natural history.

Sketch by Julie Daley

Sketch by Yvonne Rezek

Sketch by Jason Waselenko

Sketches by Shannon O’Blenes

Sketch by Jason Waselenko

Sketch by Yvonne Rezek

Sketch by Shannon O’Blenes

Sketch by Karen Wall

Sketch by Julie Daley

Sketch by Andrea Ch

I wasn’t able to join the group on May 4th, but I went for a museum sketchout on my own.

Sketch by Marlena Wyman

We have sketched at the old Royal Alberta Museum in the past, and you can check out some of those sketches by typing Royal Alberta Museum in the Search box in the right hand column of this page.

Posted by Marlena Wyman

May 4, 2019 sketchout

Thanks to Yvonne Rezek for organizing this sketchout.

“Let’s celebrate Alberta with a sketchout at the new RAM downtown on May 4. Let’s start in the rotunda at 10:45 just to get organized and so we can start roaming the museum and sketching by 11:00. We’ll meet up again in the cafeteria on the main floor at 1:00 pm.

For access to all galleries, please see https://royalalbertamuseum.ca/visit/ for admission prices.

There are also free sketching opportunities. There is good people and architectural sketching from cafeteria tables, the Manitou Asiniy stone is in its own area and affords a bird’s eye view of the rotunda, mammoth sculptures next to the admission desk, an airplane, and other possible sketching views. If the weather is fine, you can also sketch outdoors.

Once past the admission desk, there is the Bug Room, the Human History Hall, the Natural History Hall upstairs, and the “Vikings: Beyond the Legend” exhibit which is on until October 20.”