by Owen McCarthy
With the 2023 World Urban Sketching Symposium having been held in Auckland in April, many members of Watercolour New Zealand would have heard of the Urban Sketching movement and wondered what was all the fuss about. Artists have been doing plein-air painting since it became popular after portable paint tubes became available in the 19th century. Is Urban Sketching really so different?
I propose that it is not different per se, but encapsulates many artistic genres including plein-air and watercolour for on-location drawing. What the movement has done is create a global community that sketches on location and shares those sketches online. This has been enabled by the virtual community technologies that became available in the late 2000s, just like the new technology of paint tubes enabled plein-air painting in the mid 19th century.
What are the Origins of Urban Sketching?
The Urban Sketchers movement, as we know it today, was founded in 2007 by Gabi Campanario, an illustrator and reporter for the Seattle Times. As he stated in his lecture at the Auckland symposium, Look back at 15 years of Usk, the Urban Sketchers Movement was born when I found the create group button on Flickr. (Flickr is an online service for managing virtual communities that share images).
In the description for the group he wrote for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner always on location, not from photos or memory.
In 2008, the Urban Sketchers Organisation was incorporated in the state of Washington, USA as a non profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling, and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people worldwide who draw on location where they live and travel.
Having an incorporated organisation has given the movement legitimacy to raise funds, run education programs, global and regional symposiums and promote the practice of drawing on location.
How are Groups of Urban Sketchers Organised?
Groups of urban sketchers are organised as chapters geographically, usually by city, and are required to implement the spirit of the organisations manifesto which is:
1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
2. Our drawings tell a 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.
The organisations ability to foster the practice of urban sketching through a social process of including all types of artists, tools and mediums means the movement has become both diverse and inclusive in ways traditional art groups and practices are not. There are no set standards or sense of competitiveness which means there is no real entry barrier or reason for fear of performance anxiety, to join a chapter and simply give it a go.
Chapters have at least three admins who decide where the chapter will meet. Most chapters have a Facebook Group where admins announce events and members publish their sketches. Meetings are normally held at least once a month, last two hours, and are often followed by a show and tell at a cafe or bar. For example, the Hutt Art Urban Sketching Group meets weekly at 1.00pm on Wednesdays. Prior to the meeting the admin will consult with a small group, check the weather and decide where to go. Since some of the members are not Facebook users, the admin will notify members by email and also post an event on its Facebook Group. The group will then meet at 1.00pm, sketch for 2 hours and then meet at a nearby cafe at 3:00pm for a show and tell of their drawings.
As a founder of the group, it is very pleasing to watch the beginners - me included, who come week after week, and see their drawing and observational skills improve over time. Even one of the more experienced artists who had been painting and drawing plein-air most of his life mentioned that his drawing skills had improved by coming week after week.
The show and tell offers a forum for socialising and sharing knowledge which is freely given. As a result, lifetime friendships have developed. One member who drives over an hour to attend every week once said to me I wont be coming any more as its too far. Several weeks later when I asked him why he was still coming, he said I am still coming because I enjoy it so much.
Other New Zealand Urban Sketching chapters are in Auckland, Taupo, Wellington and Christchurch.
The organisation has over 400 chapters in 70 countries.
Symposiums
As well as the chapter meetings the Urban Sketching Organisation assists with running regional symposiums and an annual world symposium. The 2023 and 11th world symposium was held in Auckland. Previous symposiums have been held in Singapore, Chicago, Manchester and Porta in Portugal just to name a few. The 2024 symposium will be held in Buenos Aires.
The Auckland Symposium attracted approximately 400 participants from about 30 countries. There were two ticket types to choose from: one that included workshops and a less expensive one that did not. I purchased a workshop ticket where I could choose three workshops from twenty on offer and a demonstration.
For the demonstration, I chose Gabi Campanario Writing for sketchers:- How to Enhance Your Sketch With Interesting Narrative. He took the group to the Grafton Cemetery. As we all stood under the bridge in the cemetery, Gabi asked us questions to stimulate our senses: What did we know about the location? What did we think about the state of the tomb stones? He then sent us off to do a 15 minute sketch and perhaps add some words about the place. I wrote something about what we did there; others wrote poetry.
What is it like being an Urban Sketcher?
When I first started going out on my bike with the intention of stopping on the street to do a sketch, I would often end up coming home with an empty sketchbook, but now I have no problem stopping on the side of the street whether that be in my neighbourhood or on a busy corner in Singapore or London to sketch what I see.
When travelling I always take my sketching backpack for those moments when the opportunity arises. Those sketches are etched in my memory: the people I met, the sounds, the car that parked in front of me. A memory that a quick snap of the camera can not provide.
For example, I can remember in 2014 sketching a shophouse in Singapore, when a man stopped for a chat and came back later with a cup of tea in a plastic bag with a straw in it. I posted the sketch on the World Urban Sketching Facebook Group and within the hour I made contact with Singapore Urban Sketchers who invited me to join them a few days later.
And again when we recently stayed a night in Woburn, north of London, where I did a sketch of an old nunnery that was now a school. I had just finished doing the drawing and discovered I didnt have any water for my water colours. I was about to use tea, when one of the teachers came out to see what I was doing.
When I explained, she told me that the building was built in Elizabethan times and the school was celebrating the buildings 400 years anniversary the next day. The building had indeed been a nunnery, had been used as a fire station with horse drawn fire engines, and now was a school. She took a picture of my raw sketch to show the children and went and got some water.
These experiences and many others have made me a passionate urban sketcher who loves to be out there on the street meeting people and seeing the world one drawing at a time. What better hobby could there be.
References:
Campanario Gabi Pub 2012, The Art of Urban Sketching - Drawing on location around the world.
Campanario Gabi YouTube, 2013. Usk Auckland Symposium 2013 - Lecture Series, Gabi Campanario - Look back at 15 years of Usk.
Thank you to Sankar Ramasamy and David Balm for their input and for reviewing this article.
