Guest Post by Heather Butler in Southampton, United Kingdom
We would like to introduce the Southampton Urban Sketchers. The group formed in April with a handful of people partly as a pledge to the Southampton 50th Anniversary of City Status celebrations, but also as a coming together of several people who had been sketching in the city individually. From these modest beginnings the group has expanded to over 100 members on our Facebook site.
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| Victor Hugo’s Bakery, Southampton by Heather Butler |
A core group meets regularly on the first Saturday of the month, and sometimes in the evenings, exploring Southampton visually, sketchbooks in hand, recording its varied urban landscape and enjoying coffee (and sometimes beer!) and companionship as we share our efforts.
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| Old Town Walls, Southampton by Elaine Freezer |
Southampton is famous for being the city from which the Titanic began her ill-fated voyage and still has the old White Star Line buildings. The city faced many challenges of reconstruction after the war but retains some of England’s best-preserved medieval town walls and examples of buildings from the Georgian, Regency, and Tudor periods along with historic waterside properties.
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| Sea City Museum, Southampton by Darren Shorter |
More recent structures include the imposing Itchen bridge, the iconic new police station and the Sea City Museum, many premier architect-designed University buildings and a garden suburb designed by Herbert Collins.
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| Christmas Market, Southampton by Si Newell |
Southampton is a city that doesn’t always show its best side to the world, the traffic is busy and like most cities it has a generic shopping area, but the Southampton Urban sketchers have gone beyond the obvious.
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| Queen Victoria in Cherbourg by Kay Brown |
Southampton Urban Sketchers have recorded a city that has a vibrant waterside full of cruise ships, container vessels and leisure craft.
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| Old Northam Road by Matt Wooding |
There’s a gem of an old town that has seen residents and visitors from all over the world and historical characters such as Henry V departing to the Battle of Agincourt and Jane Austen; and its lovely award winning parks and open spaces and neighbourhoods with their own distinct character.
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| Old Cemetery, Southampton by Peter Jarvis |
Our membership is diverse, including architects, planners, students, lecturers and hobby painters but everyone comes together as equals in their passion for exploring the city in their own preferred media and styles. I think we can boast at being one of the friendliest and welcoming urban sketch communities around.
Excitingly, we will have our first exhibition at Southampton City Art gallery next year.
Heather Butler is an artist from London now living with her family and two cats in the market town of Romsey close to the city of Southampton.
