Urban sketching in Manchester in July. Hmmm. That means rain, I thought. My Brummie brain was so focused on galoshes, fingerless mittens and waterproof fisherman’s ponchos that I quite forgot to pack the ‘business cards’, the watercolours and the toothbrush.

But it turns out they have those things in Manchester too (well OK not those exact business cards) so there was no need for panic. I was ready for the Manchester Urban Sketching Symposium 2016 . What a great five days it was.

Highlights for me were the opening reception at the Town Hall,  Lynne Chapman’s exhibition and the chance to meet all the starry urban-sketcher experts from off the internet.

In between it was brilliant to wander the streets and see sketchers everywhere doing their thing: to go into a pub or restaurant and find gaggles of them busily chatting and sketching; to sit under a flyover of the A57 in the rain with Lapin and draw other people’s expensive cars, at least until the owners got in them and drove them away.

One day I shall return and finish the unfinished pictures and who knows, put all the new-found sketchy knowledge into practice. I won’t forget the toothbrush and I may just pack the suncream because the sun does definitely shine in Manchester. I saw it.

25 Aug This entry was published on August 25, 2016 at 10:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.