"3rd International Urban Sketchers Symposium"

It is official, the 3rd Intl USK Symposium is scheduled for this summer, July 12 -14, in Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic.  Last year's was in Lisbon, Portugal, and the first one, summer before last was in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Guaging from the list, the instructors will be sensational as they are all highly trained, educated and accomplished artists, architects, and sketchers from all over the world.

Click here for details.

KING 5 Interviews Gabi Campanario and Gail Wong



Recently published by the Seattle Times.  Campanario.
Click image to watch the interview.

Readers of this blog will be familiar with Gabi Campanario, local Seattle artist.  Gabi is featured each Saturday in the Seattle Times with a sketch from somewhere in, or near, the Seattle area with an explanation of what the sketch covers: a place, an event, a person, etc.

More importantly for those of us outside the Seattle metro area, he is the originator of the Urban Sketcher movement that has gone world-wide; similar to, but not the same thing as the World-Wide-Sketchcrawls that occur every four months. 

His book "The Art of Urban Sketching" was just released this month from Amazon.  You can find a link in the right hand margin of this blog.

Gail Wong is the the coordinator of the Seattle Urban Sketchers.  To see her work, click here to visit her Flickr site.

"34th WORLD WIDE SKETCHCRAWL "

January 21, 2012 

Freezing rain tonight (the night before).  Treacherous roads. Too many cars in ditches.  We decided to stay warm and cozy, in our own homes, for the WWSketchcrawl with these suggestions: "draw your coffee pot, your shoes, your tv, your couch, what you see outside your window, your bathroom counter, your refrigerator, what you have for lunch, and/or ... whatever." 

So, as Murphy's Law would predict, we got one of those lovely warm winds that sometimes blow through the PNW, and come morning of the WWSketchcrawl, about 10am, the ice was mostly melted off the roads.  Dave and Jim took the opportunity to head on out into the community.

The results are mixed, I think.  There's something about the stimulation of being out with a crowd that makes a difference.   

Here they are, by artist's first name and images created.  

Jan Working a Sketch Through the Window

Jan's "Global Warming"

Jan's "View East"

Jean's "Rhodedendron"

Nancy's "Chinese Latern"

Nancy's "Easy Chairs"

Nancy's "Portrait"

Nancy's "Lunch"

Dave sketched these high school thespians at the mall.  They were promoting their production of "My Fair Lady."

Dave's random people sketches in the Food Court at the local mall.

Jim captured this "Water Decanter" in the Kennewick Coffee Company.

These images are also posted on our FB page, here, and the WWSketchcrawl site. Yeah...we're there, together in spirit.

STAY TUNED:  NEXT WORLD WIDE SKETCHCRAWL - APRIL 15TH.

"Gabi Campanario in Caracas"

Gabi Campanario works for the Seattle Times.  Each Saturday he publishes a sketch and a short article about the place, event, or the people that he has included in his sketch. 

Not many of us here in the TriCities read the Seattle Times and even fewer of us know about Gabi. However, it was Gabi that single handedly initiated the global phenomenon of the Urban Sketcher. 

Urban Sketchers head out into their communities all over the world on any particular day then share their work either at the Urban Sketchers group on Flickr, or on their local Urban Sketchers webpages for the world to see.

Four times a year they head out on the same day on the World Wide Sketchcrawls, initiated by Enrico Casarosas in San Francisco. 

The most recent entry on his blog is this one where he was invited to Caracas, Venezuela, to help the locals artists get their city displayed in a more favorable light than its reputation had.

The really interesting thing here is how the local newspapers, radio, and television stations covered the event. That is Gabi on the front of the page entitled, "Artes."

If you would like to see what other cities are doing with their Urban Sketcher movement, check out some of the links in the right hand column.   

"Happy New Year"

We have two scheduled outings scheduled for January:  the 14th and the 21st.

Jan. 14th:  the destination we have in mind is back to the Starbucks on 395 and Clearwater, but if anyone has another place their interested in, we can go there. Let us know.

Jan. 21st:  the 34th World Wide Sketchcrawl is scheduled.  Details forthcoming, so stay tuned.

Hope you can join us on either of these two dates.   

"Starbucks at 395 and Clearwater"

In the cold, frosty air of this December day, we bundled up in our jackets and hats this morning and gathered at the local Starbucks on Clearwater and highway 395 here in Kennewick, WA.  The place was packed with people taking a break, or a second coffee, before a busy day of shopping; others were reading books and newspapers; some were studying; and still others just chatting and enjoying their favorite flavors. 

We thought we might have to find somewhere else to go, but soon three chairs opened, then a fourth and then there we were, the four of us facing each other in the middle of the room.  Fortunately, people in coffee shops move rather slowly, but when they do get up and leave, we've learned to just find someone else to use as a model to complete whatever character we were working on when they left. 

Great fun!!! 

  

 Dave

 Jean

 Nancy

 Nancy

Jim 

Jim's feeble attempt to copy Nancy's style

Featured Artist: Fred Crowley

Fred's (aka, "-watcher-") artistic abilities become quickly apparent to his viewers. His lines and compositions are spot on. His loosely sketched figures perfectly capture postures and positions as the people study and relax and enjoy their surroundings whether that be a local coffee shop, or the animals as they lounge in their peaceful zoo settings. The eye moves effortlessly thoughout.

Fred posts his work on his flickr site which is loaded not only with amazing sketches and drawings of people in cafe and shops, but also with exotic zoo animals, and "oriental abstractions."

And, rumor has it, before retiring to a life of artistic pursuits, Fred was an instructor at West Point!

Click on this image to view a slideshow of some of his cafe people.

"Sketching at the Public Library"

This last Saturday the "group" went to one of the many local public libraries here in the tri-cities: the Kennewick Public Library on Union.  Libraries are good places to sketch people because, unlike so many other places, people in the library move at a nice slow pace.

Unfortunately yours truly didn't get the notice out to the other sketchers until fairly late the night before, so there were only two of us who were able to make it to the sketch.

Here are a couple of the drawings:



Dave's Drawing



Jim's

Featured Group: "The Whidbey Island Sketchers"

We found the Whidbey Island Sketchers (WISKrs) online while browsing through the Urban Sketchers site and wanted to feature them here today.  Whidbey Island has some beautiful features and what artist wouldn't like to get their eyes and paints on such a place?  The WISkers do partake of those wonderful sights, but they also go indoors and "do" people in coffee shops, libraries and around the island.      

On their blog they say, "We’re a group of people on Whidbey Island who love to draw.  We're all about learning from one another, showcasing the unique character (and characters) of Whidbey Island, and most importantly - having fun.  Anyone can join us and all levels are welcome."  

Here are a few of their images: 

Featured Artist: Cathy Gatland of Johannesburg, South Africa

We found sketch artist Cathy Gatland while browsing internet.  Her blog, titled, "A Sketch in Time - South African sketches, paintings, and doodles," is filled with terrific paintings and sketches all created with careful and loving hands.  In the introductory comments she explains the contents of her blog, "Sketching, watercolours, oil painting, sketch and travel journals, a hotchpotch of what's on my right brain right now." .

She belongs to the "Joburg Sketchers," a group of local artists that goes into the community and sketches everything from restarants, jacarand trees, sidealk cafes, booksales, churches, other people and children, and other sketchers, to the architectual features of the building populating Johannesburg. 

Last summer, Cathy, travled to Lisbon, Portugal, and served as an instructor for the "II International Urban Sketchers' Symposium.  "Whoever would have thought mere sketches would have brought me to such a place and time, with so many people with a shared passion, so excited to meet each other?"

We would love to go sketching with Cathy sometime, somewhere. 



"33rd World Wide Sketchcrawl"

Little E and K Participating in the
33rd World Wide Sketchcrawl
Click the Picture For More

Living as we do on both sides of the mighty Columbia River,  we decided "Bridges and Things Associated With Them" would be our theme today, and what a great day it was.  

We drove down to Clover Island, a place we have been before, but each time we go, we go with fresh eyes for things and light and ideas.  Such was the case today as Jan, Jean, Pat, Dave, and Jim produced images of the Cable Bridge, the Blue Bridge, the river, the new lighthouse, Cedars Restaurant, and even Main Street.

Yichien emailed us during the outing to explain she felt she needed to keep the little ones, Emilie and Katherine, home and out of the questionable weather this morning; so they joined us "in spirit" by sketching at home.  How sweet!!!  Thank you ladies, we love your spirit!  

We hope you enjoy viewing the images.

"Last Thursday's Informal Outing"

Jim's Vineyard

 

This last Thursday we put out a call for artists to join us at the vineyards adjacent to Bookwalter and Barnard/Griffin wineries.  Jim was there for a while by himself, but then Bob pulled in and then Dave showed up for a few minutes. 

It was cool and very windy, and Dave had other errands to run, so Bob and Jim headed for the Food Mart at the Mall to draw people and get out of the 'elements.' 



Jan's Fishing Boat at the Richland Yacht Club



By now it was about 10:30 and there was hardly a soul in the Food Court.  We did some very rough sketching, and soon Jan, from Connell, joined us. 

We talked a while then Bob had to leave, so Jan and I each enjoyed a Bruchi sandwich, and then headed out to the Richland Yacht Club.  

The wind was fierce at the Yacht Club, but Jan and Jim persevered and finished with a couple nice sketches.  



Jim's Panorama of the Yacht Club setting



We hope you enjoy the sketches; and we hope if you have yet to join us on one of these outings, you'll take it in consideration and join us this coming Saturday for the "33rd World Wide Sketchcrawl."

Hopefully the weather will cooperate Saturday, and we won't have to deal with any rain, or wind.

     

"Franklin County Courthouse"




Click Jim's Courthouse to Find the Others

All last week we felt cooler air move in at night, watched the sky cloud over, and noticed we had rain a time or two, as autumn finally began showing its face. 

But this morning there were no clouds and by noon we were in the middle of an absolutely wonderful fall day with a low noon sun and great lighting.


We agreed to meet over at the Franklin County Courthouse for a sketching/painting session that proved more difficult than expected.

Next time you drive past the courthouse on 4th in Pasco, check out all the architectural features on the building. Deciding which to leave in and which to leave out was one of the challenges of this sucker, not to mention perspective and composition problems.

Thanks to Nancy, Fred and Jim for a fun-filled few hours.

Next Saturday: The 33rd World Wide Sketchcrawl.

"Sketchers Featured in Local Newspaper"



Pat Fleming, Nancy Thurston, Jim Bumgarner
click the picture to find the article

We were pleased with this feature article in the Atomic Town edition of the Tri-City Herald this morning. The event reported is the hanging of our show at the Cheese Louise deli, mentioned in a prior post on this blog.

We greatly appreciate the coverage; hoever some clarification is warranted: 

Our first showing was when we were the featured artists at "Phaddy Caddy Coffee Lounge" in Kennewick last June.  This is our second showing.

Enrico Casarosa, of Pixar, originated the "World Wide Sketchcrawl" movement, not the "urban sketcher" phenomenon.  Gabi Campanario, of the Seattle Times, started the "urban sketcher" movement that has participants from all over the world, as does the WWSKcrawl movement.

The "509 Urban Sketchers and Painters" represent the Tri-City area by participating in both of these online activities.

See original letter to the TriCity Herald here.

"Updates"

1. We will be going "somewhere" (destination yet to be determined) local this Saturday, October 8th, to sketch, paint, draw. Departure will be 10 am in the parking lot of the 509 Artspace and we'll finish up sometime around noon. We usually find somewhere near where we finish for lunch together and the sharing of our work. Hope you can join us!

2. October 15th - the "33rd World Wide Sketchcrawl" is scheduled, world wide. We have had good numbers for these outings and hope you can join us either for the first time, or again. The sketchcrawls were originally designed as "marathon" sketch days, going from morning through lunch and well into the afternoon. Don't know if we'll have the stamina for such a lengthy outing, but we want to keep the option open this time. If you're new to this phenomenon, go this link, click on forums and find us at "509 Urban Sketchers and Painters." From the forums you can also find us as "Tri-Cities, WA" in past sketchcrawls. Photos of our work will be added afterwards. This is a ton of fun and we certainly do hope you can all join us that day!!

3. Watch for a feature article of the "509 Urban Sketchers and Painters" in the Tri-City Herald this Friday, October 7th, tomorrow. When we hung our show at the Cheese Louise, they sent a photographer and Dori O'Neal told me she is hoping for publication then. Our show will be up for the month of October there.

4. One of own, Bob Irwin, is having a show this month at You & I Framing in downtown Kennewick. Be sure to catch him there this evening at Kennewick's First Thursday Artwalk!!! Way to go, Bob!!

keep arting, and we hope to see you soon.