An invitation to a Private View and a Sketchcrawl

Next Thursday evening, the Private View for the third exhibition of drawings by Urban Sketchers London takes place at Timberyard's Old Street branch on the evening of Thursday 10 April.

All those fellow sketchers who know me and can get to it are invited! I'll be there on the night sketchbook in hand! Leave a comment below if the date fits your diary (sorry for the short notice!)

Timberyard, 61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW

Drawings by (top) Katherine Tyrrell
(bottom Jhih-Ren Shih

In addition to an opportunity to meet the artists - and maybe sketch with them - there will be live jazz from students at the nearby Guildhall School of Music.

The work of the six artists, Thomas Corrie, James Hobbs, Isabelle Laliberté, Jhih-Ren Shih, Katherine Tyrrell and Zhenia Vasiliev, ranges across everything that makes London the beautiful city it is: architecture, parks, its inhabitants, its iconic views and the forgotten and often overlooked corners of the city that stopping to draw can often bring into focus. The exhibits range in styles and approaches, but are all drawn from observation.

"Drawing in a sketchbook makes you slow down and look at your surroundings in a more reflective and inquiring way," says James Hobbs, an advisory board member of Urban Sketchers and the author of the newly published book Sketch Your World. "And cafes like Timberyard are popular places to relax, draw and share those images through social media."

Thomas Corrie and his friend relax
after hanging his artwork

Exhibitors include:

• Architects Thomas Corrie and Isabelle Laliberté
• James Hobbs, freelance editor and author of Sketch Your World
• Katherine Tyrrell, who has a book about drawing published later this year
• Digital designer Zhenia Vasiliev
• Graphic designer Jhih-Ren Shih

Private View: 10th April 2014 (evening) at Timberyard www.timberyardlondon.com

61-67 Old Street, London EC1V 9HW

Exhibition: The show continues until 30 June and follows the second exhibition by different members of London's Urban Sketchers at the Seven Dials brand of Timberyard branch earlier this year. 

See the video taken during the hanging of the exhibition.

Sketchcrawl (date to be announced): There's also going to be a Sketchcrawl - using Timberyards as a base - in the near future but we've still to agree a date! Everyone is welcome to the event – the date is to be announced on social media shortly. The cafe will be the starting point for a planned sketchcrawl – a relaxed gathering of artists of all backgrounds, ages and abilities – that will work its way, around Old Street and the Barbican, stopping to draw on the way.

Urban Sketchers London: The group is part of a growing worldwide community of blogging artists – www.urbansketchers.org – who draw on location in and around the cities and towns where they live and visit. For more information about the show and London's Urban Sketchers visit urbansketchers-london.blogspot.com or follow @urbsketchlondon on Twitter

Urban Sketchers: Urban Sketchers was started by the Seattle-based reportage artist Gabriel Campanario in 2007, and now has regional blogs in more than 30 cities, an annual symposium and more than 32,000 Facebook followers, and it raises funds for artists grants and scholarships.