Let's draw: Urban Sketchers London 2021 Provisional Programme

Sketch by Helen Hayhoe

Looking ahead to 2021, the challenge for USK London is to expect the unexpected. We cannot be responsible for organising structured, real-life events due to government restrictions, but we have decided that we will choose a theme for each month as sketch inspiration that people can do according to national, local and personal situations.

We will stick to the format of one Saturday a month, with a timed ‘throwdown’ on Facebook where people can share their sketches and, for each of the specific events, we will allow flexibility for sketchers to share work not necessarily made within the M25. We want to be as inclusive as possible at this difficult time and include anyone isolating or in lockdown.

Each month, we will introduce the theme with ideas for a group meet up (if and when that is possible), an interpretation that can be done locally, and tasks that can be completed from your home. That way we can rise to the opportunities that come about but adapt to the levels of restriction that apply at any moment in time.

Where a specific location is mentioned, please do follow government guidelines. Feel free to visit the location as an individual at any time during the month of the theme, or to sketch in small groups as allowed. ‘Throwing down’ on Facebook on a specific day will bring us together.

We would also like to encourage the sense of our community of sketchers by encouraging you to write more about your sketches – about the media used, your inspiration and more about you. Do feedback to each other and comment on posts. There is a wealth of talent out there. We will also be collaborating with other USK groups, in the UK and beyond.

Also we are very happy to welcome Sasala Wickramasinghe to the admin team in 2021! More about Sasala in an upcoming post.

We are presenting plans for the first 6 months of 2021. We welcome you to offer to co-facilitate any of the months’ events, and/or to offer to run events for the other months. We do have ideas for the next set of themes but welcome new ideas too. Email us at urbansketcherslondon@gmail.com

Further details about each theme will be posted nearer to the time.

Saturday 16th January/Regeneration/Isabel Carmona 

Battersea Power Station, Changes that you notice in your local area, Changes in your home: redecoration, DIY 

Sunday 14th February/Naughty but nice/Nicky Brown 

Eros in Piccadilly Circus, Spring, blossoms, snowflakes… Chocolates, Valentines… 

Saturday 27th March/People/John Webb 

Waterloo Station, Passers by, You and yours 

Saturday 17th April/Animals/Jo Dungey 

Details to be confirmed by Jo nearer the time.

Saturday 15th May/Squares/Lis Watkins 

Trafalgar Square, Your local square, Square things! 

Saturday 19th June/Water/Helen Hayhoe 

Twickenham Riverside, Local river or pond, Water in your home 

Ideas for July to December include Sculpture, Decoration, History, House and Garden, Transport, Food and Stairways. We welcome any other suggestions and offers of help for the second half of the year. Please get in touch!

Let's draw: Urban Sketchers London 2021 Provisional Programme

Winter Festivals - a drawing challenge for Saturday 12th December 2020

As we still cannot meet as group, we though it might be nice to set a theme to replace this month’s cancelled sketchcrawl and the suggestion is ‘Winter Festivals.’ It could be activities indoors, outdoors, something grand, small details, at home or in a public space. The idea is to use the idea of ‘Winter Festivals’ as a starting point to inspire some sketching and how you choose to interpret it is entirely up to you!

We will have a ‘throwdown’ on the London USk Facebook page from 3.30pm where you can share your sketches with the group.

Please note: We want to be as inclusive as possible at this difficult time and include anyone isolating or in lockdown so we will allow sketchers to share work not necessarily made within the M25 on this particular occasion.

*Sketch from last year outside the Natural History Museum by Sassala Wickramasinghe.

Winter Festivals - a drawing challenge for Saturday 12th December 2020

'Collections' - a drawing challenge for Saturday 21st November

 

As we still cannot meet as group, we thought it might be nice to set a theme to replace this month’s cancelled sketchcrawl and the suggestion is ‘Collections.’

The idea is to use the idea of ‘collections’ as a starting point to inspire some sketching and how you choose to interpret it is entirely up to you! Maybe share with us the story of something you collect? Maybe you have items passed down from a different generation that you could draw and share their history? Where do you keep your collection? Maybe share your collection of sketchbooks or art materials?

We will have a ‘throwdown’ on the London USk Facebook page from 3.30pm where you can share your sketches with the group.

Please note: We want to be as inclusive as possible at this difficult time of lockdown so we will allow sketchers to share work not necessarily made within the M25 on this particular occasion.

Sketch at the top is by Isabel Carmona.

'Collections' - a drawing challenge for Saturday 21st November

Virtual St. James's - A replacement for the planned Saturday 17th October sketchcrawl

[John Swanson writes] This week we had planned to visit the area around St James’s Square, known for its commercial galleries, smart shops, clubs and splendid architecture. This is the area bounded by Piccadilly, Haymarket, the Mall and Green Park.

Since we can’t go there as a group, the challenge this time is to go there virtually. Look up some landmarks in St James’s, and then go out to your local area – or anywhere of your choice – and draw buildings or urban scenes inspired by actual sites in St James’s. So, you might think of St James’s church in Piccadilly and draw your local church. If you are lucky enough to have a local art gallery, look up one of the commercial galleries in St James’s and post your drawing of your local gallery with a reference to the one in St James’s.

Post your sketch, saying what it is and where, and adding ‘inspired by …’ your chosen St James’s location.

Here are some ideas to get you started. Google maps will quickly help you find more.

Churches 

St James’s on Piccadilly, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. See https://www.sjp.org.uk/

Fancy shops 

Fortnum and Mason: https://www.fortnumandmason.com/ Piccadilly Arcade: https://www.piccadilly-arcade.com/ Bentley and Skinner, Jewellers, Piccadilly: https://www.bentley-skinner.co.uk/ Jermyn Street: https://www.jermynstreet.net/

Eateries

Any number of cafes on Piccadilly The Ritz! : https://www.theritzlondon.com/

Galleries 

There are many commercial galleries and dealers: https://www.allinlondon.co.uk/regions/st-jamess/directory/art-galleries-dealers And don’t forget the Royal Academy of Art, on Piccadilly: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

Gardens 

St James’s Square: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James%27s_Square

Pubs 

The Red Lion, Mayfair, in Duke of York Street: https://www.redlionmayfair.co.uk/ The Golden Lion: https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/golden-lion-st-jamess/

Clubs

Whites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White%27s The Carlton : https://www.carltonclub.co.uk/ The Athenaeum: https://www.athenaeumclub.co.uk/ Boodles : https://www.boodles.org/ Brooks : https://www.brooksclub.org/

Plus, many others.

Remember, we aren’t drawing locations in St James’s (unless you are lucky enough to be there) but local scenes that can be linked to St James’s. It’s up to you how strong or tenuous those links actually are.

Enjoy your urban sketching!

Virtual St. James's - A replacement for the planned Saturday 17th October sketchcrawl

Sketch the history which surrounds us - Saturday 12 September 2020

[By Jo Dungey] For this challenge, we propose you use location sketching to investigate the history of your neighbourhood in London.  Landscape, buildings, infrastructure, street names, monuments, all provide evidence of the past.

Ira Aldridge, 1807-1867, was an African American actor, who later lived in England and was famed for his Shakespearean roles.  Above is Lis Watkins’ sketch of the house where he lived in Upper Norwood from 1861.

As we are unable to meet, the timetable is flexible, sketch and post at a time practical for you.  You could do some initial investigation, then choose one location to sketch on Saturday 12 September 2020.  Post on the Urban Sketchers London Facebook page and/or other social media you use.  We will have a virtual sketchbook throw-down on our Facebook page at 3pm Saturday 12 September 2020. 

Use the hashtags: #usklondon  #sketchhistory

Layers and fragments: the history which surrounds us

Recent campaigns, for example by Black Lives Matter, have drawn attention to the values represented in the historic environment, for example expressed by statues and monuments.  Who is remembered, and what is preserved by the history which surrounds us?

Investigate the history of your neighbourhood.  This could include:

• Buildings and architecture, interiors and exteriors, including museums, public buildings, commercial buildings, religious buildings of any faith.  Buildings which have been converted from one use in the past, to another in the present, such as warehouses into housing.
• Evidence of the economy and industry of the past, transport, infrastructure, parks and open space
• Evidence of people associated with the area, in the past and more recently.  For example, historic figures, architects, scientists, writers and artists, philanthropists.  Look for statues, monuments, murals, blue plaques, information about founders and funders, investigate street names.

Approaches to sketching you could try:

• Choose a theme and make one or more sketchbook pages, with small sketches and fragments of the past and present.  Include text if you wish.
• Sketch a local building which includes more than one style, for example a shop with a contemporary ground floor, but older architectural styles higher up the building façade.
• Incorporate collage into your sketches, perhaps from copies of old maps or historic photographs: look on the internet, or in local history collections run by a public library or museum.

This building in Dulwich is called the Old Grammar School.  The poet George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron, 1788-1824) attended the school in Dulwich run by Dr William Glennie from 1799 – however this building dates from 1841, designed by Sir Charles Barry.

As a child, artist and poet William Blake claimed to have seen angels in a tree on Peckham Rye.  My sketchbook pages show a portrait of Blake, sketches of the trees today, and a recent sculpture on Peckham Rye by Morgan Paton, which includes wings which refer to the vision of William Blake. 

Sketch the history which surrounds us - Saturday 12 September 2020

Saturday 8 August 2020 - A Victorian challenge

The Chiltern Firehouse by Nicky Browne

In most areas of London there are Victorian buildings, which are often extraordinary decorative confections. Town Halls, churches, mansion blocks and many Victorian streets with carefully detailed brickwork, gables and finials. 

As we are still unable to meet up as a group, the challenge for August is to find inspiration from Victorian architecture in your own part of London. You might want to choose to draw a whole building or maybe draw a series of details across a sketchbook spread. Maybe you can attach a bit of the history and storytelling also?

London Bridge Hospital by Sasala Wickramasinghe

The day has a Victorian theme which suggests sketching something with extravagant and interesting details - but don’t restrict yourself to this era only! A stunner - a coup de theatre of a building anywhere!

There will be a group throwdown at 3pm Saturday on Facebook. Of course, if you are unable to join in on the day, please still share your drawings on social media or Facebook later, using the hashtags #urbansketchers and #usklondon.

Hope you will join in and please remember to stay safe and follow the current government guidelines wherever you are drawing.

Sketch by Nicky Browne

Saturday 8 August 2020 - A Victorian challenge

USk Talks

In case you have missed any of the ‘USk Talks’ which have been recently broadcast on Instagram Stories, they have been archived on the main Urban Sketchers website at http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/usk-talks.html

They are a very enjoyable listen and all the guests that are interviewed set a drawing challenge, which is great if you are looking for inspiration at this time.

USk Talks