Urban Sketchers is inviting the public to draw with them at New Haven’s historic Pardee-Morris house this weekend. Getting together to draw and socialize is a big part of the mission of this worldwide community of artists.
“We meet up at a certain time. We go off, we draw for an hour or two, and then we meet back, and show our artwork to each other,” said Elizabeth Stocker from the New Haven chapter of Urban Sketchers. “It’s the same as if you were playing music with other people — it’s a creative outlet, and it’s something that you can learn from other people, and it’s about sharing, and sharing a passion.”
Urban Sketchers started as an online forum in 2007, created by Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario. According to the Urban Sketchers website, Campanario intended the 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.”
Since then, the movement has blossomed — there are over 120,000 Urban Sketchers members worldwide, with chapters in over 60 countries.
Sharing your on-location drawings is another pillar of Urban Sketchers. Their motto, “we show the world, one sketch at a time,” is reflected in the thousands of artist-submitted sketches on their website. For instance, a search of “Connecticut” yielded dozens of sketches, from quaint countrysides to Mystic Seaport, Yale’s Peabody Museum, and other Connecticut landmarks.
The New Haven chapter of Urban Sketchers is inviting the public to join them for an outdoor drawing session this Sunday, Aug. 20, at New Haven’s Pardee-Morris House, from 1-3 p.m.
