4th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona!

Last week I was in Barcelona to attend the urban sketching symposium.

Over 150 urban sketchers from all over the world met to draw together, learn and have fun.  A number of workshops, demo's, social 'drink and draw' sessions and public 'sketchcrawls' were held over three days in various location around central Barcelona.

It was brilliant!  I loved it and Barcelona.  I learnt so much and met many friendly and talented people...and ate lots of delicious food.  It was intense, inspiring an fun.


Sketching and happy in Barcelona (Thanks for the photos Melody).


Here are some sketches I did before the symposium started....

En-route to Barcelona! (another easyjet sketch)



A drink in El Born.  Barcelona has so many lovely squares and plazas with great outdoor cafe/bars.



and Tapas!



A work in progress.....Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia

on the hill in Montjuic at the Joan Miro Foundation.  I particularity like the sculptures on the terrace.

Meeting fellow sketchers (and nervous sketching) at the C3B Bar the night before the symposium.

I'll post my sketches from the workshops in another post.

Dinner in the garden after work

It was very hot today (for London). The high was 34 degrees Celsius and it is still 32 degrees at 7.30pm.

....meanwhile on the other side of the world, central New Zealand and Wellington (my home city) is still being shaken by aftershocks after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake on Sunday.

Kew Garden

A friend organised a small sketching get together at Kew Garden last month. I particularly liked this little cactus garden. The weather was perfect and it was a lovely day. We finished off sampling some of the fine beers at 'The Botanist' brewery/pub nearby.

A day sketching in Greenwich

Sketching meetup in Greenwich on 20 April 2013. The weather was perfect and lots of people were out enjoying it. Approximately 40 sketchers met at Islands Gardens in and morning and loosely followed a route through the Foot tunnel to Greenwich, around the extremely busy covered market and up the hill to the Royal Observatory (home of Greenwich Mean Time). We ended late afternoon at the lovely Trafalgar Tavern, perfectly situated on the Thames.


A communications van setting up near the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel in preparation for the London Marathon the following day.

Fellow sketchers admiring the view from Island Gardens across the Thames towards Greenwich	The Cutty Sark floating on it's magnificent new glass visitors centre. The Cutty Sark is the last surviving tea clipper ship.
A busker in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.	The south side entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. I love the style of the red brick and glassed domed entrance buildings. The tunnel, which opened in 1902, passes under the Thames and links Island Gardens (at the bottom of the Isle of Dogs) with Greenwich.

Koyul sushi stall at the Greenwich Covered Market.

Self portrait

Me drawing me reflected in a cool retro lamp at Timber Yard cafe in Old Street

Hot Apple Juice and beer at Broadway Market

This day (a few weeks ago) was a one of the first sunny days in a long time. It was cold but warm enough to sit outside in the sun at the Cat and Mutton pub and watch the people coming and going at Broadway Market in Hackney.

Then as soon as the sun went down it was freezing so we moved inside.

On the tube

Quick sketches of people on the underground.

Good Luck to the Barley Mow!

There are a few Barley Mow pubs about. This one is located in Shoreditch, on the corner of Curtain Road and Rivington Street. It's a small pub and a lovely spot for a drink in summer when people spill out onto the pavement.

According to wikipedia - A barley mow is a stack of barley and also a cumulative folk song. The verses of "The Barley Mow" wish good luck to various sizes of vessels of alcoholic beverages, and lastly to the barley mow, a venerable reserve of one of beer's key ingredients. Later verses supplement this list with roles and occupations associated with beer, from brewing, to distribution, to serving in public houses, to drinking. Each verse wishes good luck to a new subject, which is then added to the beginning of the litany recited in the second line of the refrain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barley_Mow

Candelabra

A candelabra at The North Pole pub N1.  Drawing in ink on a watercolour background.  I have been doing an evening drawing class and we have been experimenting with different backgrounds created in advance.

Three Skulls

Some fantastic skulls on display at the Welcome Collection museum in London.  They are part of the 'Death: A self-portrait' exhibition.  A macabre and fascinating collection of death related objects. I especially the the Mexican papier-mache skull.