Drawing Attention – March 2014

USk Board Meets in Savannah

Our hard-working Board of Directors: Clockwise from top left: Jason Das (President), Marc Taro Holmes (Secretary), Gabriel Campanario (Treasurer/Editorial Director), Jessie Chapman (Membership Director), Elizabeth Alley  (Vice President/Events Director), Mário Linhares (Education Director).  (Photo by Jessie Chapman)

The Urban Sketchers Executive Board met in Savannah, Georgia, last weekend for their first-ever in-person meeting. Vice President Elizabeth Alley reports:

We had a very productive weekend discussing all areas of the USk organization, especially Membership and Education, and initiated plans that will have a positive impact on the organization, its members and the future of observational sketching on location. You’ll begin to see these new initiatives rolling out soon.

We added an Editorial Director to the executive board, and voted Gabriel Campanario to that position. He will continue to serve as Treasurer as well.

Elizabeth Alley was named Events Director, and will continue to serve as Vice President.

Sketchcrawl in Savannah. (Photo by Savannah Now)

We also attended a sketchcrawl organized by Kip Bradley and hosted by the Telfair Museum, which kindly provided us with meeting space. Many locals attended, as well as sketchers from as far away as Atlanta and Charleston, and it was a great opportunity to meet people and to see more of the city. (See Marc Holmes‘ weekend recap and more sketchcrawl photos by Savannah Now.)

We hope that you will be as excited as we are about the changes to come, and we’re looking forward to sharing them with you.

Urban Sketchers in Action

Urban Sketchers in Madrid were recently featured on the cultural television program, “La aventura del saber.” See the 10-minute video clip online (Spanish).

USk.Spain, an online newsletter

Urban Sketchers Spain has published USk.Spain, an online newsletter of urban sketching happenings.

Shari Blaukopf, Denise Benoit and other Montreal Urban Sketchers are featured in a video by La Presse (French).

The Vancouver (B.C.) Courier published an article about urban sketching featuring Vancouver sketcher Sigrid Albert. She was also interviewed by Co-op Radio.

Ken Avidor, the man on the street in the Twin Cities (U.S.), now writes a biweekly blog post about urban sketching for Streets.mn.

James Nutt’s sketch of the Essex House in Miami.

Minneapolis architect James Nutt recently had a fantastic serendipitous sketching adventure during a trip to Miami: “I stopped in at the Clevelander and did a few sketches and then blogged them,” James said. “The hotel picked it up and gave me a call. They said they loved what I did and to pick four days to come down and draw. Expenses paid and I took my family! Wow. Best trip ever!”

Seattle architect and urban sketcher Stephanie Bower has been awarded the two-month NIAUSI fellowship to Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, where she’ll be working on sketches and paintings for an illustrated walking guide to the hill town. She’ll also be teaching a workshop there July 4 – 10.

Urban Sketchers Malaga sketching from scaffolding.

Urban Sketchers Málaga have gone to great heights for sketches. They recently made arrangements to climb scaffolding to draw the works inside the Santo Cristo de la Salud Church. Their sketches from the day are shown on Flickr.

Sketcher Inma Serrano was invited to illustrate an online literary book with her urban sketches.

Exhibitions

The National Museum of Singapore is featuring the work of 50 members of Urban Sketchers Singapore in conjunction with “A Changed World,” an exhibit by pioneer Singaporean artists.

Stephanie Bower will exhibit her sketches made in France, Italy and Spain last summer while she was on the Gabriel Prize architecture fellowship in France. That prestigious award is given to one architect in the U.S. each year to pursue a project that encourages learning about architecture through hand drawing and painting. The exhibit will be in Seattle March 6 – April 25 at the MITHUN Threshold Gallery.

Ami Plasse has an exhibit called “Storytime” at Houston’s Pictures Plus Gallery. The show focuses on a wide variety of Ami’s life drawing work from the subways of New York to the bars and music venues of Austin.

Workshops and Other Sketching Opportunities

Seattle-based sketchers Gail Wong, Frank Ching and Gabriel Campanario have been invited to give a three-day workshop at the Washington State University campus in Pullman. The event, which is sponsored by Canson, Royal Talens and Stillman & Birn, consists of presentations, hands-on sketching and panel discussions. Registration is $200. For more information, contact Bob Krikac at rkrikac (at) wsu (dot) edu.

Urban Sketchers Chicago is hosting a sketching seminar June 7 – 8 near the Palette & Chisel art store. At various downtown Chicago locations, highly regarded instructors will teach topics like location sketching, color theory, sketching on the iPad and choosing what to sketch. For more information, contact urbansketcherschicago (at) gmail (dot) com.

Sketching El Hogar Filipino Building.

The second annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl is set for July 11 – 12 in Portland, Oregon. No workshops or lectures are planned for this free event. It’s just two days of non-stop sketching in Portland’s rich cultural environment. “A veritable cornucopia of friendly people and things to sketch.” Who could resist that?

Meanwhile, Urban Sketchers Switzerland is gearing up for its third annual national sketchcrawl in Neuchâtel April 19.

You have to be quick to catch Paul and Liz! When Paul Wang and Liz Steel offered their “Expressive Urban Sketching” workshop, it filled in a matter of days. And no wonder – it will be held on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbor.

Seahawks victory parade sketched by David Hingtgen.

Blog Surfin’

Check out the cool animated images of Urban Sketchers Philippines sketching the controversial El Hogar Filipino Building.

In early February Miguel Herranz sketched protesters at Partido Popular headquarters protesting passage of a new law forbidding abortions in Spain.

Inma Serrano continues to report on Corrala Utopia in Sevilla, where 30 families have been in danger of being evicted.

While ecstatic Seattle urban sketchers David Hingtgen, Gail Wong, David Chamness and others posted celebratory sketches of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory, Veronica Lawlor gave her perspective of the event in New York – I mean, New Jersey.

Shout it Out in Drawing Attention! 

Not seeing anything about you or your Urban Sketchers group in Drawing Attention? Then we want to hear from you! Please send your urban sketching news items with links and images to: drawingattention at urbansketchers dot org. Or tag me, Tina Koyama, on news you post on the Urban Sketchers Facebook page. You can subscribe by e-mail. Happy sketching!