An honour
Posted: September 12, 2012 Filed under: watercolour 48 Comments »Today is a very special day for me because I have been invited to be a correspondent on the Urban Sketchers blog. This means that I will be one of 100 sketchers from around the world who post their work (and show their part of the world) on the site. I met and sketched with many of the people who post on the blog this past summer in Santo Domingo at the Urban Sketchers Symposium and I am thrilled and honoured to be posting alongside them. Have a look at the work these people do. You may be astounded at the variety and quality of both the writing and the art. Naturally, I won’t be posting there every day as I do on my own blog but posts that are most relevant to the urban theme will go up there simultaneously.
Not long after I started posting on my own site I had a conversation with Marc Taro Holmes about adding words to my “sketches only” posts. In fact it was on the first day we sketched together at the Redpath Museum. He explained that the storytelling behind the sketches was as important as the sketches themselves and he encouraged me to write. I thank him often for this encouragement.
I have been saving this sketch because I wanted to post it at the same time as my introduction on the Urban Sketchers blog. I painted it at the Byward Market in Ottawa.
To see my intro on Urban Sketchers, click here.



Found your blog while visiting Urban Sketchers, this is great, will visit you a lot from now on, love love love your sketches and painting!
Thanks Jude! It’s great to hear from you. Glad you like the work.
Congratulations, Shari! What a great blog discovery.
Love your market sketch. Beautiful!
Thanks Karen. I am so glad to introduce you to Urban Sketchers.
i’m so happy for you Shari as you expand your adventure to the world of urban sketchers.
Love your market painting too!
It’s hard to believe you’ve only been doing this for one year and now your talents will be shared with and appreciated by more people from around the world! Congratulations and all the best
Thanks Mary. I really appreciate your encouragement!
Congratulations, what a huge compliment to be invited to U S!! Well done!
It is a huge compliment Angie. Thanks!
Congratulations, your delightful drawings and sketches and paintings will be a nice fit for the urban sketchers.
Thanks Elaine!
Congratulations, Shari! I had subscribed to Marc’s blog about two weeks or so and just before I went on holiday (I am typing this on a borrowed iPad in a Mallorca hotel room), I discovered your blog while browsing through Marc’s older posts. I must say I immediately fell in love with and felt inspird by your watercoloring work. I actually replaced my old W&N Cotman watercolor palette with a brand spanking new expensive palette of the W&N Artist’s line a day befor my flight. The colors are magic, the quality is so much better, but I still struggle to get anything on paper. Thanks though for keeping us blog-subscribers fed with so many nice watercolors!
Lucky you to be in Mallorca. I’m so glad you found both of us.
It’s great that you upgraded your painting supplies. It is amazing what a difference good quality supplies can make. Keep painting!
congratulations, very well deserved!!
Thanks Genine!
Shari:
That’s wonderful news. Now the whole world will get what we’ve been getting. Your work is always so cheerful. It makes my day!
Joan
Thanks Joan.
Congratulations Shari! That is great news and well deserved. And such a good photo of you doing that standing-while-sketching thing, which I do find most unusual.
Only problem is that, more exposure means more followers and more people reading these comments… perhaps, I should be more careful about the tone and content of my comments?
Thanks Ross. Why is standing while sketching so unusual?
I am happy to have more followers and that means you will get even more famous too because I often have people who ask me “who is that Ross guy who comments on your blog?”
Part A: You obviously have steadier hands than me.
Part B: And your answer is?
I tell them that you are the Aussie with the shaky hands.
LOL! Your answers are almost as good as your watercolours.
Congratulations! I’ve been enjoying getting your daily post and as a follower of US, it will be a pleasure seeing your work there. Your daily paintings are an inspiration. After all, if you can paint from your car in Montreal in winter, I, in a warmer region, should be able to make a daily sketch:) Thanks for the motivation!
Thanks Vicky. The more people who draw, the better… Keep on doing it!
Congratulations Sherrie! Very proud of you!
Merci Lisa!!
That’s terrific Shari. I follow the US blog and yours. Both are so inspiring. I did a sketch of this very stall at Byward Market (at least it looks like the same one) when I was there in May. I like my little sketch but yours is masterful.
Thanks Yvonne. I found a good table at a café so that made it easier. Isn’t it a great place?
Welcome again Shari. And I agree, writing is a big part of urban sketching.
Thanks again Miguel!
Congratulations! I will enjoy seeing your work there as well as here!
Thanks!
Congratulations! I am a huge fan of your sketches. I’m regularly stunned by their beauty, freshness and remarkably strong sense of place. In fact, I think I found you (back in 2011) by following a chain of links that began at Urban Sketchers, so in my mind I’ve been thinking of you as one of the correspondents for some time now, and forgot that you weren’t. In truth, it is Urban Sketchers who should be congratulated for having you join!
-cvj
It’s amazing how that Urban Sketchers web works. I have met so many people starting from that same place. I’m so glad you have stuck around. I really appreciate your comments.
Congratulations Shari, you really earned it! I look forward to your new painting everyday and don’t know how you produce so much great work! Bests, Tom
Thanks Tom!
Congratulations, you deserved this recognition. Thanks for your daily sketches and words
Thanks Linda!
On the same day, you painted mother spider, the byward market, saw Van Gogh and did a few hours of traveling time !! You are a great example and we better get on with our one daily or almost daily sketch.
And there was also a b&w drawing of “Maman”!
Wow! I have taken a workshop from a world renowned Urban Sketcher!! Well, I already knew that.
Nice to be recognized. Don’t let any pressure come up about this. Be you, be free with the brush and one with the page. See you hopefully in a few weeks.
Mike, I always appreciate your zen comments. I hope we’ll see each other soon too.
Congratulations and you will be a great contribution to USK!
It’s always great to hear from you René!
Congratulations on joining Urban Sketchers! I get your RSS feed and look forward to your view of Canada and your travels. My great grandfather was from Canada. I’ve only been to Newfoundland – years ago – when I worked with an oil drilling company. What a beautiful country!
Marc did a wonderful job with his sketches from Newfoundland.
Thanks John. I loved Marc’s sketches from Newfoundland. It really made me want to go there to paint. I appreciate your kind words.
Delighted for you, Shari. You are so deserving of this. And may I say that your daily posts just make my day.
USK just came up another notch with your ‘promotion’! Keep up the grat work Shari.
Thanks John!! I am so excited to be doing this.