Liverpool Urban Sketchers
On a rather wet Saturday in November 2014, eight artists met up in the café of the Everyman Theatre for a cup of coffee before venturing out to go sketching in the rain. This was the first meet up of Urban Sketchers, Liverpool, soon to be the Liverpool chapter of the worldwide Urban Sketchers movement.
Paul’s first urban sketch; a rainy Rodney Street.
Urban sketchers began in 2007 when Gabi Campanario, an illustrator based in Seattle, USA, started sharing his drawings on Flickr and, by the time we got started seven years later, had grown into a worldwide phenomenon.
There was no meeting in Liverpool in December but in January 2015 we met on the first Saturday of the month in the Walker Art Gallery and we have been meeting up on the first Saturday ever since. The numbers were fairly low in the first few months, usually around 10 – 12 but following an article about the Sketchers on Liverpool listings site; ArtinLiverpool, we suddenly found ourselves exceeding 20 – 25 at every meeting. It was at this point that Myself and Bob Joy began visiting cafes in advance to see if they were happy with a group of twenty arriving unannounced first thing Saturday mornings when they were likely to be quiet. Not long after that we started to meet up only in the larger venues such as the Cathedrals and museums.
2018 saw the 10th anniversary of Liverpool’s tenure as European Capital of Culture and we decided to hold a full weekend of sketch walks over the weekend of 29th June – 1st July. (which happened to coincide with a heatwave). We had over 100 artists out drawing, the group photo on our Facebook page was taken then.
Flyer designed by Sue Corcoran with a gorgeous Liver Bird by Ian Fennelly
Why is Urban sketching so popular? I suspect it’s because it’s so simple. There’s no membership as such, no judgements on the work, it’s sociable, it celebrates your home surroundings wherever you live and it’s a way of meeting people. Urban Sketching is flexible. Meeting up once a month, doing a few sketches and sharing them over a cup of coffee is enough for many artists, if on the other hand you fancy a more elaborate project then it’s there for the doing. Artists, may decide to record some specific element of their home town, or engage with community or school groups on an educational basis, or even produce a book! Which brings me to the current LUSk project. Next year, we will have been meeting for ten years and to mark the occasion we’ll be holding a weekend of sketchwalks and workshops and publishing a book of our drawings. Everyone is excited about the project and we have a team of volunteers bringing a wide range of skills to making it all happen. We believe the book will be a showpiece for the Liverpool urban Sketchers and for the city, so watch this space to see when you can order your copy.
Liverpool urban Sketchers, Summer 2023
In the meantime, follow the Liverpool Urban Sketchers Facebook page for details of the regular first Saturday meet ups. everyone welcome.