Sketching in the RI Exhibition at the Mall Galleries

I went to the Private View of the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours this week at the Mall Galleries. Looking back at past blog posts about their exhibitions reminded me to look back in my London sketch folder at sketches done IN their exhibitions in the past - and you can find some of these below.

See my blog review of this year - 205th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and you'll find lots of subject matter for sketching while the exhibition is on!

As usual, all sketches below start in pen and ink in a Moleskine sketchbook and then have coloured pencils added - except for the ones at the end which are in pencil.

See RI Exhibition at the Mall Galleries (2010)
This sketch appears on page 103 of my book Sketching 365 
available via a link in the side column or from all good art bookshops
(which includes the Mall Galleries!)

Some marvellous and colourful paintings by Bob Rudd of Iona and various other islands in the Hebrides feature on the end wall.

see The Private View (199th RI Exhibition) (in 2011)

My method of sketching is simple - find a seat and start drawing! The composition evolves as I draw. People come and go and the trick is to get good at spotting the ones who look like they're going to stick around in the same spot for a little bit!

See RI 2015 Private View - and sketchbooks on show

There's a lot of RI member artists bringing in their sketchbooks to the exhibition as part of the events programme (see the list below) and as you can imagine a lot of them will be sketching using watercolour.

and finally....

Below are two sketches from this review of the exhibition Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Annual Exhibition 2008 and the sketch is of Bill Toop RI (who sadly died last year) demonstrating how to paint in watercolours and a little boy called Thomas who was watching him intently.

NOTE: This blog has been on a hiatus for various reasons - not least being the very serious problems I had in mobilising last year due to the onset of arthritis and a torn meniscus in my knee. This has meant I now cut out carrying anything unnecessary. I had trouble getting my coat on and off at one point never mind a back pack!! I'll be trying to get back to sketching and blogging again in the future and in the meantime may well post more sketches from the past that haven't seen the light of day on this blog before!

London Urban Sketchers at Canary Wharf - 16 January 2016

On Saturday I led the London Urban Sketchers Group's visit to Canary Wharf (see UPDATE: re Let's Draw Canary Wharf 16 January 2016

These are my sketches. I first took people to see the amazing sky garden at Crossrail Place where the vegetation has really bedded down since it opened last May.

This was my first sketch of the day

My first sketch was of Poplar DLR Station - from a distance

Sketched through one of the holes in the roof of Crossrail Place

I then turned my attention to the sky garden

I drew in pen and ink on the spot
- and added some colour when I got back home

Dicksonia Antartica at Crossrail Place in Canary Wharf

 - it was just above freezing on the day and I was greatly amused by the name of the tree ferns!

We shared our sketches at lunchtime in Jubilee Place - the warmth was much appreciated

London Urban Sketchers - lunchtime at Jubilee Place undergound shopping mall

This is when I discovered there was a sketch of me sketching my first sketch!

4th Annual Exhibition by Urban Sketchers London - at Timberyard Soho

The fourth exhibition by London Urban Sketchers - and the third at branches of Timberyard - opens next week on Monday 2nd November.

It's really great to be one of the launch exhibitions at a brand new branch of Timberyard in Soho - and for the exhibition to be on until the end of April 2016.

I've been busy for the last few weeks organising the exhibition alongside the core team for the exhibition of James Hobbs, Nathan Breville and Evelyn Rowland.  James does liaison with our exhibition and event partners, Nathan and Evelyn are doing the really big job which is the hang next weekend and I'm doing admin and marketing. I organised the call for entries and selection. My next job is labels! (see How to make labels for an art exhibition)

Urban Sketchers London at Timberyard Soho

From Blackfriars Bridge by James Hobbs

WHERE: Timberyard Soho
AT: 4 Noel Street, London W1F 8GB
OPEN: Monday to Friday - 8am-8pm; Saturday & Sunday 10am-6pm
WHEN: Monday 2nd November - 30th April 2016.
@timberyarduk, @urbsketchlondon

Timberyard create workplaces for creative people fused with speciality tea and coffee.

It's very appropriate that our exhibition should be associated with these brilliant coffee shops because very often after a sketchcrawl we go for a coffee. Then we admire each other's sketches and spend much time chatting about sketching kits!

Linked Events

You can get involved with any one of our three linked events planned at present - we may have more in 2016!

• The Private View is on 3rd November between 6.30 and 9pm and regular readers of this blog are most welcome
• There is a Sketchcrawl on Saturday 14th November - starting and finishing at Timberyard - Liberty's (Great Marlborough Street) to the BBC (Langham Place) - 
• There is also a Book Event on 25th November - of which more later.  I'll be signing my book alongside James Hobbs and Isobel Carmona with their books. Plus we'll have the latest books by other Urban Sketchers.

Selected Sketchers

As well as me, these the names of the other urban sketchers whose sketches are included in the exhibition: Sangeeta Bhagawati, Elizabeth Blunt, Nathan Brenville, Julie Bolus, Isabel Carmona, Jo Dungey, Katy Evans, James Hobbs, Isabelle Laliberte, Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, Choon Low,  Dolores Kitchener, Tom Ledger,  Paulina Little, Simone Menken, Olya Osipova, Simon Privett, Nick Richards, Evelyn Rowland, Sue Smith, John Swanson, Marissa Lee Swinghammer, and Tony Underhill.

The sketches are a mix of ones done on our regular monthly sketchcrawls and those sketched while people have been out and about London. Links in the names are to their websites or blogs. Do please take a look at their other work.

Previous Exhibitions

The Art of Sketching - our first exhibition at Foyles

Previous exhibitions:

• 2012: the first exhibition also celebrated the launch in the UK of the book about The Art of Urban Sketching 
• The Art of Urban Sketching - at Foyles in London and 
• USk London blog: Urban Sketchers London exhibition opens at Foyles
• 2014 Timberyard Seven Dials (January 2014): the one I missed due to writing my book was at the Seven Dials branch of Timberyard - see 
• USk London blog: Urban Sketchers London Exhibition! (Seven Dials) and 
• Urban Sketchers Exhibition Private View
• 2014: Timberyard Old Street (March - June 2014) - 
• Urban Sketchers London - new exhibition at Timberyard (Old Street) and 
• Usk London blog: Urban Sketchers London exhibition at Timberyard Old Street 

Some of the exhibiting artists at our last exhibition at Old Street 
Thomas Corrie, Isabelle Laliberté, James Hobbs and Jhin-Ren Shih