Sketchers quorum
Urban Sketchers Portugal general assembly convened on April 1st. The official annual meeting had a moderate crowd, almost like a family gathering, except that it had powerpoints and spreadsheets.
Lessons from Portimão
Urban Sketchers Algarve and the Municipality of Portimão invited us to teach a full-day workshop, and we decided to give a a test run to a programme that we had prepared before. It’s called “The narratives of architecture and the people that experience it“
A stroll through the village
It is said of Alfredo Roque Gameiro that he painted in watercolor like others paint in oil. These illustrations for Júlio Dinis’ novel As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor attest to that statement.
The return of the prodigal sun
Nearly a hundred sketches, done by over fifty authors, revisiting the original hundred locations depicted by Alfredo Roque Gameiro settled in his native town to pay him homage.
#OneWeek100People2017
Last week, Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes challenged sketchers worldwide to spend a workweek sketching one hundred people.
Thousands of people took the challenge worldwide. Liz and Marc can be proud that they made the world sketch quickly and loosely for a single week.
10 years x 10 classes
10 years x 10 classes is the first long-term education project organized by Urban Sketchers, celebrating the movement’s 10 year anniversary.
Xmas in Lagos #1
Christmas in Lagos is all about family, good wine and great food – particularly desserts!
The Zambujal stories
The exhibition in Museu Leonel Trindade about the Castro do Zambujal, was the perfect excuse to visit the city of Torres Vedras, last December. It had been years since the last time I was there, and there’s a lot of talented sketchers and watercolorists in the region, worth getting to know. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a slow Saturday on the weekend before Christmas.
The year of the rooster
Portuguese Urban Sketchers met in the most international square in Lisboa to join and sketch the Chinese New Year celebrations.
BM xmas party
Pedro Alves and I kept sober by spending more time sketching than drinking… until the scale turned to the other side.
“A Baixa vista do Jardim de S. Pedro de Alcântara”
A strange and sunny day had hit the city when Pedro Alves and I decided it was time to face the mighty challenge of sketching the crown jewel of Roque Gameiro’s portfolio.
Capela de Nossa Senhora da Guia (Rua da Mouraria)
This old 16th century portal in the edge of the old town of Lisboa, in the area called Mouraria, aparently hides architectural and artistic treasures inside its doors.
Rua do Século (antiga Rua Formosa)
From the Alto da Cotovia, many stories have rolled down the hill – a cleptomaniac arsonist, doomed construction sites, an underground water reservoir that still exists to this date, with an unconspicuous underground path to São Pedro de Alcântara and branching out in all directions of the hill of the Jesuits.
No Largo da Achada
In Largo da Achada you can find one of the dozens of casas de ressalto existing in the city. These are residential buildings, mostly hailing from the 15th century, with overhanging timber-framed floors, leaning over streets and alleys. A clever way of expanding your real estate, which finds its counterpart in the modern marquises. Clever, but dangerous.
Largo da Achada
Lisboa has become a city of street art ever since the Carnation Revolution brought with it thousands of political murals in 1974, right down to the international street art stars Vhils (Artsy link here) and Bordalo II. Many corners and alleys, streets and squares in the old town of Lisboa became showcases for this artform
Beco do Castelo
Deep in the city center of Lisboa, there are still places that utterly feel like a village. Nothing is really public nor private here, in Beco do Castelo.
Rua do Bemformoso
The narrow street that runs in the north-south direction, connects Martim Moniz to Intendente square, has become, in the latest years, home to immigrant communities, mostly from the Indian sub-continent.
O Rossio
There are many words for square in the Portuguese language, each with a specific meaning, or maybe not so much – praça, largo, terreiro, adro… It so happens that rossio is just another one, as there are several rossios around the country, but there is one which people simply call Rossio.