The Ottawa Urban Sketchers

In 2015, when I was in New York city with my daughter, I spent the day sketching with the NYC urban sketching group and after I had returned home to Ottawa, (and with the encouragement and coaching of Mark Leibowitz), I started the process of establishing an official chapter of the International Urban Sketchers group in Ottawa.

The application process began in 2015 but the Ottawa Urban Sketchers chapter became "official" in January 2016.

The Ottawa Urban Sketchers Chapter

New York City - Here I Come!

I am excited to be going to New York City again. It has been over one year (March 2014) and, instead of travelling there in February or March, I will be there in September when there are leaves on the trees and flowers in the gardens. Imagine: Central Park with leaves! That's so exciting!

"DÈRIVE": a spontaneous journey where the traveller
leaves their life behind for a time
to let the spirit of the landscape and architecture
attract and move them

New York City Urban Sketchers

I have made contact with the amazing Mark Leibowitz - New York City Urban Sketcher  - and he has added me to their urban sketching email group. This group is incredibly welcoming towards out-of-town sketchers who are visiting the great city of New York - like janififi who was visiting and sketched Highbridge Park. And it is a busy group of sketchers!

On Saturday September 19, 2015 the group sketched the Gowanus Canal

Mark and other New York urban sketchers will be sketching in Brooklyn Heights on Sunday and I plan to join them for part of the day! http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/2015/09/sunday-sketch-brooklyn-heights.html

Here are some more links to NYC urban sketchers group:

• blogger: NYC Urban Sketchers http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/
• flickr: Urban Sketchers NYC https://www.flickr.com/groups/1922806@N25/pool/
• google group: NYC Urban sketchers https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/new-york-city-urban-sketchers

In any case, I'll be carrying my sketchbook with me like I have in previous years' visits to NYC and I thought it would be fun to look back at some of my old sketches.

My old sketchbooks

My Old Sketchbook Memories of NYC

I started going to New York City (NYC) in 2009 as part of an NGO group (Canadian Labour Congress) to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). I went every year from 2009-2014 for two weeks (except 2014 when I only went for one week). In my off hours, I wandered NYC and took pictures and sketched.

In years past, I used my sketchbooks more as a travel journal to keep track of where I went every day while I was in New York City. I pasted in maps, receipts, pieces of brochures and tickets etc. and I would squeeze in a tiny sketch here and there (mostly on weekends). 

Because my daughter's birthday falls in March and The UNCSW fell in March, her birthday gift was an air ticket to spend her birthday in one of her favourite cities. The busy UNCSW schedule meant that I was time-pressured and busy with meetings on my previous visits but this year my trip is strictly for pleasure and I can't wait

Here are some old NYC travel sketches from previous years:

2009

My UN Letter of Confirmation 2009

My daughter flew into NYC for the weekend to join me as a birthday present (2009)

2011

Took my daughter to see
Daniel Radcliffe in
How To Succeed In Business
(and waited to get Daniel's
autograph)

John Lennon's Dakota and then Strawberry Fields and
Hell's Kitchen Flea Market

2012

Sunday March 14, 2012 - It was my
"You've Got Mail" tour of NYC

2013

My daughter drew the sketch of me and her on top of Rockefeller Center
so I added it to a New Yorker cover in my journal

This page was mostly map but has so much meaning for me
Our day started at the Abraco Coffee Shop (had to sketch the cool coffee makers)
I sketched the piano player at Washington Square while he played "Au clair de la lune"
And we walked the High Line

Grateful to see Tom Hanks perform in a
Nora Ephron play and then grabbed rainbow cake at
the 2nd Avenue Deli

Thrilled to get a new picture n my UN identification

2014

A birthday celeration for my daughter at  Ladurée
and witnessing a historic performance of "Waiting for Godot
with  Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart 

Visited the Tenement Museum and loved it

My last session of the
UN Commission on the Status of Women (2014)

http://other-wordly.tumblr.com/post/56897768016/pronunciation-de-rev

I am excited about my upcoming visit to New York city and I wish I could count on going every year for a couple of weeks to sketch but NYC it is a pretty expensive place to visit. This year we are staying at an airbnb, flying on points and taking the train (Amtrak) back through the Adirondacks to Montreal. (It should be spectacularly beautiful!)

I will post my sketches when I get back!

If only my yellow lab Lexington could fit in my suitcase

I absolutely love the opening title sequence of "You've Got Mail" It is only 3-4 minutes long but I believe it to be one of the BEST opening titles to a movie ever and it always gets me excited about NYC.

Please visit "Art of The Title" if you are interested in learning more about the genius of Nora Ephron and the making of "You've Got Mail"  http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/youve-got-mail/ 
P.S. the Pope is in NYC on Thursday and Friday !
P.S.  60,000 folks would be on the great Lawn of Central Park on Saturday  for the Global Citizen concert while we are there. Look for us in the crowds! https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/the-whos-who-of-the-2015-global-citizen-festival/

!