Urban Sketchers- The Anniversary Weekend- Part One

The Houston Sketchers

In 2013, at an international urban sketchers event, two Texans came together. Jim Richard and Judith Dollar decided that Texas needed a chapter of Urban Sketchers. Urban Sketchers Texas was born. From there, six chapters grew in Texas: Dallas/Ft. Worth, East Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Midland/Odessa. This blog was birthed by the very same Jim Richards. On this year, the occasion of the 10th anniversary, the Dallas/Ft. Worth chapter wanted to celebrate. Others were invited and the event in Bastrop became a weekend event.

As you can see from the blog header, the anniversary weekend in Bastrop was well attended. One hundred hardy sketchers had signed up to go to the celebration and almost everyone was able to make it.  

I have to take a moment first to thank some people who made the posts possible. I'm doing two because there is just too much sketchy goodness for a single long post. But Stephen Reed from USK- Dallas/ Ft. Worth was our official photographer. He graciously shared all his photos and many of the people photos are from him. Thanks Stephen. I also had some contributions from Mary McJunkin.

So my weekend began at the Lost Pines Art Center who played hosts for the weekend. Thanks so much to them. The members of the planning committee were already busily at work taking care of last minute details, arranging the goodie bags and setting up for the Friday evening program. Stephen Reed, Ray Marques, Judith Dollar, Lynne Wells, Dalynn Montgomery, Kathryn Seay, Cindy Schiffgens and members of the 6 chapters made this weekend possible. Thanks everyone.

Goodie bag

On arrival, everyone got a goodie bag with contributions from a number of donors. I will name them at the end of the post and thank them. We couldn't have done these and the door prizes without their generosity.

My job was checking in sketchbooks. And due to the heat and excitement they arrived fast and furious. Here are some picture of the sketchbook display which remained up all weekend. There wasn't a time that weekend when there weren't sketchers looking through all those sketchbooks.

The Sketchbook display

Sketchbook display -Stephen

When we peeled the sketchers away from the display, we began our social event and evening program. 

Introduction by Kathryn and her husband

Kathryn and David Seay acted as emcees for the Friday and Saturday events. First they introduced Jim and Judith to give a brief history of urban sketching in Texas. Then Jim and Judith were both presented with gifts from their respective chapters. 

Judith with her gift from the Houston chapter- a lovely watercolor by Carlos Chua

Next came the main program with our special guest Stephanie Bower of USK Seattle. Stephanie is the author of the book The World of Urban Sketching. Stephanie talked to us about the challenges she faced in assembling this book. (especially during COVID) and about the artists she chose to represent chapters from all over the world (now at 400 chapters!) Her process was very interesting. Of course, people in the audience had to sketch the sketcher.

Stephanie Bower

Mary's sketch of Stephanie

Check out the link to Stephanie's Instagram page where you can see a sketch she did of the interior of Lost Pines!

From there we gave out our first set of door prizes (more about those later) and went to dinner. (and for some Drink and Draw) It was a full first evening, but we were excited to see the events planned for the next day.

Saturday morning was warm and sunny and we were at Lost Pines bright and early to hear a talk from Jim Richards. Titled "Busted in Havana", it was about his very funny encounter with officials in Cuba and his very sketchy visit to various Hemmingway sites near Havana.

Jim Richards

Sketching the sketcher

And of course there were sketchers drawing Jim as well.

Jim as seen by Michelle Jannise

Again we gave out some door prizes and then we dispersed to sketchwalks all over Bastrop.

There were four you could choose from so I will cover a few in this post and a few in the next.

First, some sketchable things near the art center.

The steam engine- Carlos

Carlos drew this steam engine, which sits near the center and played a big part in the local logging industry. Jeff took a crack at the same subject, but in color.

Jeff

Michelle

Michelle drew the silos which sit next to the art center and host different events. On Saturday it was glass blowing.

A popular sketching location on Saturday morning was the Farmer's Market.

Sketching around the Farmer's Market

Judith's sister Pene joined us to sketch

Richard

Martha

Michael

Veronika

Farmer's Market throwdown

I didn't get pictures of all the spreads at the various throwdowns, but this looks like a very happy group.

The next location was the park alongside the Colorado river. Everyone had to take a shot at getting a picture of that bridge.

Peter

Susan

Susan's daughter Kathryn joined us for the weekend

Chris

Francisco

And then two very peaceful views of just the Colorado river.

Peter

Michael -looking the other way towards the state highway

Next post: the other two sketching locations, the Saturday evening program and the Sunday morning sketchout. 

Let me thank the first group of sponsors who made all the goody bags and door prizes possible: Art Supply on Almeda-Houston, Texas Art Supply-Houston, Etcher Studio, Lost Pines Art Center, Sketcher Press, Luxury Brands of America