Picture Perfect at Urban Sketchers Porto Symposium

Imagine the quite movement of life surrounding you and embracing all your senses. That is Urban Sketch atmosphere in Porto.

The quiet line descending a blank page or the rushed movement and scratch of water colours, flowing down the marked paths in a portfolio of sketches are the ingredients for happiness, according to participants at the Urban Sketchers Porto Symposium.

This event is running in Porto till Saturday and gathers sketchers from 46 different nationalities, professionals and otherwise. This Urban Sketchers movement, which began in the USA, holds its 2018 annual Meeting in the city of Porto, a first timer of such event but the one that has the largest participation ever.

The activities programme includes workshops and sketch walks. Four coordinators are the "reporters on the job", whose task is precisely to report on the daily events by drawing them.

This morning, Terreiro da Sé was the place of choice of this amazing crowd. Eight hundred people armed with notebooks, pencils, water colours, pencils, poster paint and mere inspiration surrendered to the "amazing vistas" of the city of Porto and "the extraordinary traits of such a unique city".

Porto. met them in Terreiro da Sé.

The logo of the event - a curious Clérigos Tower, leaning as to have a peak at all those sketches - was drawn by Portuguese Urban Sketcher Isa Silva.

Isa explains that "I have always loved the Clérigos Tower so I drew my inspiration on it, and as soon as I saw the competition rules I understood it is the type of sketch that fits into one of the sketcher's tendencies, which is distorting objects".

"This is not a competition, people sketch what they feel like, with their own materials, and the only rule is to draw on a notebook. Also, something great this year is that there are children sketchers participating in this symposium", Isa Silva added, as she is also a participant to the event.

Ramana Kv, an Indian residing in Hamburg, says that "this is my first symposium, I came to know about this symposium a year back. I think this is great and I wanted to be here. It's my hobby. I got hooked".

Ali Emdad, from Baltimore, Maryland in the USA, decided to come to beautiful Porto, as he is a member of the Sketchers Association and "they chose Porto to hold this symposium because of the beautiful sights and there are a lot of opportunities for artists and sketchers here. This is for leisure. This is my hobby. I am an Associate Dean in a School of Business".

Céline, French painter, finds that Urban Sketchers events are the perfect getaway to daily routines and chores. "It is my moment, I get to relax and share my work with other sketchers. I do something different here. This is more about the present. And when I get home I will do something more permanent, like an oil painting, for instance".

Young Grey Mason, five years old, is one of the children taking part in this event. He is drawing the sidewall of Sé Cathedral building because "it looked good to draw".

He and his family - mum, dad and younger sister - came all the way from LA California in the USA, as they are "urban sketchers", Grey explained. He also said that he loves doing this because "I like artwork and because it looks good".

This five-year-old started the business of sketching "a long time ago", when he was two!

Tomorrow, 21st July is the longest day, it is the closing day. There will be a silent auction, where sketchers offer a drawing, if they want to, and people write down the amount of money they are willing to pay for that sketch and the money reverts to the Urban Sketchers Portugal (USkP). Also, this is the moment when the place for the next symposium will be announced.