Last weekend I joined my friends and a large group of sketchers for another day of 'urban sketching' in my hometown of Utrecht. The staff of the Stadsschouwburg (aka city theater) was kind enough to let us sketch inside (as it was and still is pretty cold), and we even had some fabulous lunch!

I don't love how my sketches turned out (I wasn't tremendously inspired), but the limited color palette I picked out on a whim, made things interesting. Back home I tested my new pan pastels as a bonus!

Huge thanks for my friend Ellen Vesters for filming me!!! It made the whole ordeal a lot less cringey for me. <3

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Sketchbook: Seawhite of Berighton

Materials: Tombow markers, Luminance colored pencils, Pan Pasels, Neocolor II

Music: 'Suncatcher' by Wendy Marcini via Epidemic Sounds!

Last weekend was my birthday weekend! No no, it' wasn’t actually my birthday, but Jochem gifted me a weekend in Paris for my birthday and the day was finally here! We went sans the children, courtesy of the grandparents, and the sun was out. We spent lots of time walking around, sketching, drinking wine, and looking at art. I also managed to shoot some video for my first ever ‘vlog’, so I’d have something to remember it by.

The camera work still needs some work - it’s feeling a little Blair-Witchy to me, but it’s been so much fun to pull this together! A full sketchbook tour + update on which books I bought are still to come, but enjoy these sketches!

We had a hectic summer. Instead of our usual summer travel, we stayed home in favor of beach trips and lots of DIY. But there have been good moments. Good moments with little boys’ sandy legs and tousled hair, and good food, and friends you’ve know for but not seen in forever.

And then there was a lovely impromptu meetup with my sketch crew. My friend Ellen Vesters (talented artist and serial entrepreneur who set up her own art academy, Venster, like HELLO) had heard rumblings of Nishant Jain of the amazing SneakyArt podcast being in town and organized an Urban Sketchers meetup.

As small group of us met up in the shade of the Dom church in Utrecht, and we talked and sketched and talked, and attracted strangers from all over the globe along the way. Fellow artists out for a stroll, eager to join the conversation about art and life. Bits of our conversation have ended up in the podcasts (here).

Achter de Dom, Utrecht

Part of our group having lunch at De Rechtbank, Utrecht

Results and feet!

Some of us then went to have lunch, just around the corner, where I did another quick sketch. We all* left that day feeling exhilarated by the sense of adventure and possibility.

*All being: Nishant, Ellen, Vera, Jason, and Emma

Dude on the terrace of De Rechtbank