For the last 15 years, an enthusiastic group of amateur Taranaki artists have met every week to sketch local sights and scapes. They’ve produced hundreds of sketches between them, and become a tight knit group unified by a love for a very particular art form.
Urban Sketchers Taranaki has more than 200 Facebook members, and is part of a global urban sketching movement. It was formed in 2009 by Scott Wilson as little more than a regular catch up with a like-minded friend.
They’d sketch in new locations every week, including cafes, beaches, events, streets…anywhere where sketchers can pick out interesting objects to draw. Now, they can have 15 or more people sketching for 90 minutes, followed by a show and tell session and a drink.
“We all have different styles and our favourite media,” Wilson says. “It doesn’t matter what level people are at, it’s really just the enthusiasm for sketching that matters.”
It’s an informal group that’s free for anyone to join. Being aligned to the global urban sketching network means overseas sketchers are able to join them, and members can also link up with other groups when they go travelling.
“We’ve had sketchers from Singapore, Chile, Australia and other New Zealand cities join us,” Wilson says. “My wife and I joined sketchers in Tel Aviv on one trip, and another time I was in Milan I contacted a guy who came out on his push bike and took me to the back streets to sketch some great places off the beaten track.
“A few of us went to an international Urban Sketchers Symposium in Auckland last year, where there were around 500 sketchers from all over the world.”
Sketching is a broadly defined art form that can include drawings in pen, water colour or just about anything.
“Some people say sketching is a bit like shorthand,” Wilson says. “It’s usually quite quick, and becomes more of a drawing the more time you spend on it. Everyone has their own style and preference.”
Mary Bird has the task of selecting the location each week, posting it on the Urban Sketchers Taranaki Facebook page.
“It’s a democratic process – we often ask people where they’d like to go,” she says. “But even then, there are options – we don’t say to sketchers, ‘We’re going to sketch this building’. We’ll meet somewhere and anyone can sketch anything around.”
For something that might seem like an individual hobby, Bird says it’s actually very social.
“The catch up afterwards is great, but even while we’re sketching, we’re often approached by people asking questions,” she says. “Especially children – they’re so open and inquisitive. You can get lots of people stopping and starting up a conversation about what you’re drawing or how you’re drawing it, which is great.”
For more information, including photos of recent sketches or to see where the group is sketching next, head to Urban Sketchers Taranaki on Facebook.
