Urban sketchers - Fleming Art Group

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Urban Sketchers

I came across a reference to Urban Sketching in an art blog and on investigation found a Southampton based group which had been formed in April 2014. It is Facebook based and is the only reason I have to join Facebook although my children have been using it for ages. I went to a 'sketchcrawl' at Netley Abbey in September 2015 and have just been to one in Oxford Street, Southampton. We meet the first Saturday in each month with some additional meetings in the evenings. Here is a little history from the Urban Sketchers website.

In 2007, a global community of urban sketchers began to form when Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario created an online forum “for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner... always on location, not from photos or memory.”

This is the main advantage of the group, that is, sketching and painting en plein air as the French have it. Here are my first two attempts.

Netley Abbey

The London Hotel, Oxford Street

Not exactly going to set the world on fire but they were fun to do and there is nothing like sketching in front of the subject for seeing the detail. The chatting over coffee in the cafe was also most enjoyable!

There are now groups all over the world, you can find out more about them at the world website www.urbansketchers.org and the Southampton group at Urban Sketchers Southampton.

I suggest you give it a go, there is no membership as such unless you wish to join the Facebook group but that is not essential. Just turn up and start sketching and another sketcher will be obvious, there were about 25 of us in Oxford Street.

I have listed some books you may be interested in on the Books page.