USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, What I will miss most!

What I will miss most:

1. Breakfast with my friends, the way to the Alfandega in the morning seeing    
    sketchers already on the way and the early bird sketching
2. The singing of Amber Sausen to begin each day of the Symposium
3. The creative energy of the crowd, all as crazy as I am (some even more...)
4. The sketchers everywhere in the streets
5. The drink & draw, the art talk, the drawing on paper tablecloth, the learning, 
    the flipping through and talking about each others sketchbooks 
6. The sharing spirit
7. The multi-cultural open minded people 
8. The freedom to sketch all day and the allabout holiday feeling
9. The friendly locals and the good food
    and last but not least (and the point I miss most)
10. my old and new like-minded sketching friends 

Marc Holmes was right. This was one of the best experiences ever.
Let's meet again next year. 


The above drawing was made in Gaia, opposite Porto.

But this is NOT THE END of my travels, as my original flight back home was cancelled and consequently I did some more drawings as I therefore stayed a few days longer in Porto and the surroundings...so stay tuned...

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Final Reception, drink & draw

On our last Syposium day (which was not our last day in Porto) there was still the raffles draw (where I actually won the package below photographed on my hotel bed with no. blue 31 - this is great!) 

And there was the closing reception....too bad for my friends (and in the end for me) that for non passholders they wanted 20 Euros/Person for entering the Reception as some of my friends therefore did not come and we others left earlier to join them as we wanted to be together. 

I would have loved to stay longer at the Reception, but how if your friends stay outside. A bit sad... anyhow this was a great event and I enjoyed every second with old friends and new. My thanks go to the GREAT ORGANIZERS, THE VOLUNTEERS and to all our nice portuguese hosts and GREAT PEOPLE of PORTO.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Final Photo on Praça da Liberdade in Porto

...drink & draw with Anya, Sandra, Paula, Elin & Fairouz...

 


More than 800 artists from all over the world and lots of additional sketchers who did not have symposium passes and came anyhow to this extraordinary event. What a massive creative ENERGY!

The group photo of all sketchers can surely be found somewhere on the urbansketchers site (I am the red dot somewhere in the crowd...)

Mehr als 800 Künstler aus aller Welt und noch zusätzlich viele Sketcher, die keinen Symposiums- Pass erhalten haben und trotzdem angereist sind... was für eine gewaltige kreative ENERGIE!

USk Syposium 2018 in Porto, Final Sketchcrawl Praça da Liberdade

After lunch we decided to go to the final destination to sit down on Praça da Liberdade and draw more "quietly" (if ever this is possible in the city). For me this was the most relaxed drawing time of the whole Symposium as the challenging workshops were over. In the meantime friends arrived from Switzerland and every evening we had great fun in talking art and having dinner together. With every group dinner I learned more thanks to all of my friends. Here are a few things I learned and noted down to memorize:

  

Here it is me sketching the statue. (Thank you Paula for photographing.)

Further down is a photo from the next day in order to be able to compare reality to my sketchbook. 

Below is a map where all sketchwalks are shown. I could only attend the first and the last one as I was having workshops at the time of the other sketchwalks.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Workshop 4

On the last Symposium Day my fourth workshop was held by an absolute Master of watercolour: Cheang Jin Khoo from Malaysia. 

C.J. made a one hour demo while explaining his painting and answering questions. 

The workshop was called: "Leaving white in Watercolour".

 
After that we had 1,5 hours to do our paintings of the same subject (mine above is still unfinished (and I think it will remain like this). 

I really liked the work of Chris from my workshop group with a plain colour approach and a very clear composition) and later we had a grouping to discuss the work.


After the workshop we all hurried back to Alfandega. I still did not have tickets for the raffles-draw and as Paula bought some tickets I also bought two of them. 


After this whole full day, we went for dinner with our friends and some nice ladies from Paris, Egypt, Lebanon?, Ireland,... joined us. We had a great evening together. Yet another wonderful coloured day in Porto.

USk Syposium 2018 in Porto, Day 3, Workshop 3

A watercolour workshop with instructor Shari Blaukopf from Canada: "Right up your alley - light, colour and shadow in Porto's narrow spaces..."

We had lots of fun with that one as Shari is such a great person and teacher and while drawing in the alleys close to Alfandega we met extremely nice people who asked us if we needed chairs or made music in the alleys for us. We had dust and cat-hair in our palettes. (Mine was run over by a cat) It was a sympathetic thing in those small streets... 

Shari taught us step by step her colour mixing (generous amount of fresh paint) and how to paint the subject plus shadows,  which was really good to follow. In the end she let us draw an alley but I did not finish... see below. My thanks go to Shari and the nice people of the workshop group (see below).

BTW: Paulo Mendes the Symposium Correspondent drew us while drawing in the alley. Let's see..., we are on his sixth drawing (the coloured one), and the blond somewhere in the middle is actually me! Thanks Paulo for your extraordinary work. click HERE to see Paulos drawings

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 3, workshop 2

The 2 workshop I chose was Marion Rivolier's which I liked very, very much as it was very demanding,  we worked extremely hard mixing colours and trying to draw people with fat brushes. No line work with pencil, just direct watercolour! I love her power, her expression and her style. She reminded not to draw with "an ugly-brush" (=waterbrush) but with a real watercolour brush and in the beginning we made exercises in colour mixing and with "the bad 'and" which was astonishing and new to me, but the results speak for themselves. All in all one of the best workshops I have ever experienced!!! 

USK Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 2, Workshop 1,

 

Workshop 1: João Catarino - "Water Sounds: Shapes,  Rhythms and Patterns by the River". We did three exercises to record graphically the patterns observed in the water movements and in a second layer for example the background (could be landscape, boats, people etc.). If you are interested in this matter, please have a look at J. Catarino s website. Our workshop location was at Ponte Dom Luis besides river Douro. João told us to first observe the ever changing water rythm for a few minutes and then draw what we see. This was not as easy as that. We had to think ahead to spare out the places for the surroundings. All in all a super experience.

The photo is from the day before the workshop and I asked João permission for the photo as I am a great fan of his graphical art and his surf graphics.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 2, early start of the day

Early start of the day after quite a short night. The yesterdays evening reception was good fun and we met lots of excellent urban sketchers and they were all very nice people. It was crazy to see all these artists at Alfandega I just knew by internet and it was impressive  to finally meet them in person all in one spot. This morning a lot of coffee was needed to keep me going and I was really excited about doing my first workshop today. But first I did the drawing you see above amongst the early birds at the edge of the Alfandega building.

Am zweiten Tag war ich früh dran, trotz des abendlichen Empfangs. Wir trafen dort tolle Künstler und heute gesellte ich mich zu den Frühaufstehern, um das obere Bild zu malen. Auf meinen ersten Workshop war ich schon sehr gespannt. Oben das Bild, das ich unter den Early-Birds an der Ecke der Alfandega gemalt habe.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 1, Sketchwalk 1

 

I met Paula in the first few minutes before the symposium start which was great luck and we decided to do the Sketchwalk 1 together which lead to Ponte Dom Luis in Ribeira Area. I sat down behind a container just not to have all the people in my neck and began to do a direct watercolour of the ships on Douro river.  I began a bit too dark and as the group photo was announced for 17:00 I did not finish.  BTW: My drawings to come are mostly unfinished as we had to hurry a lot, not to miss out a thing...

(The beautiful blue tiles stamps on the left where carved by Sandra Biskup from USk Vienna.  Thanks I love them!)
 

Kurz bevor das Symposium begann, habe ich Paula getroffen. Das war toll, denn wir verabredeten zusammen auf den ersten Sketchwalk zu gehen, der an der Alfandega begann und an der Ponte Dom Luis endete, wo um 17:00 Uhr auch das erste Gruppenfoto sein sollte. Ich suchte mir einen geschützten Platz an der Ribeira. Hinter mir ein kleiner Container, damit ich etwas abseits der Touristenströme war. Mein Bild wurde leider etwas planlos, dunkel und wie fast alle Skizzen der nächsten drei Tage unvollendet, denn es war immer ein bisschen zu wenig Zeit - und wir wollten ja auch nichts verpassen.

(Die schönen blauen Azulejo-Stempel wurden von Sandra Biskup von USk Wien angefertigt. Was für eine super Idee!)

USK Syposium 2018 in Porto, Day 1, Lunch Drink & Draw

 






This was my first Drink & Draw with one old and several new friends at shop-vintage-bar Armazem where the coffee was my friend and kept me going for the afternoon first sketchwalk to Ponte Dom Luis.

Unser erstes Drink & Draw war dann in der Vintage Bar Armazem. Der Kaffee dort rettete mich für den am Nachmittag geplanten ersten Sketchwalk zur Ponte Dom Luis, wo später auch das erste Gruppenfoto stattfinden sollte.

USK Symposium 2018 in Porto. Day 1, first sketch across the street in front of Alfandega

 

Here is the first direct watercolour sketch I did in front of the Alfandega building, where sketchers of all Nations drew beside me. (Please excuse the poor photo quality.) People gathered at Alfandega that morning and I could have a closer look to the exhibition of "Sketchtour Portugal" as well where portuguese artists sketched alongside foreign artists in every region of Portugal for one week doing at least six drawings each per day. Great thing!

Hier ist mein erstes direktes Aquarell, das ich direkt vor der Alfandega (altes Zollgebäude) gemalt habe, neben Zeichnern aus aller Welt.

USK Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 1, Demo selection

After check-in we had to chose the Demo we would like to see. The choice was not easy as there where so many brillant artists to chose from. I decided to attend Renato Palmutis demo (from Brazil) as I love his watercolour work.

Nach dem Check-In konnten wir eine Demo auswählen und mir gefielen die Aquarelle von Renato Palmuti aus Brasilien so gut, weshalb ich ihn ausgewählt hatte. Es war wirklich schwer eine Auswahl zu treffen, denn alle Künstler waren hochkarätig.

USK Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 1, Goodies

Directly after checking in at Alfandega we received our Goodies from the very well organised symposium Team. The Goodies came from Sponsors of the Symposium to whom I would like to say thank you and I will try out the things they gave to us. I photographed them on my hotel bed. Please excuse the poor quality of the photos to come in the following days (phone photos)

Direkt nach dem Check-in in der Alfandega bekamen wir unsere Goodiebag von den Sponsoren des Symposiums. Herzlichen Dank dafür und auch Danke an die großartige Organisation.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto - Ponte Dom Luis I (registration - day 1)

The registration was on Wednesday morning and thanks to the very well organised team we did not have to wait long till we got our Symposium Pass. The city was crowded with Sketchers of all nations ( more than 800 Artists from at least 48 countries). I was the lucky one to meet a friend directly in the beginning of the whole thing - what a coincidence - and we stuck together in every spare time we had. 

Die Registrierung war am Mittwoch früh und dank der guten Organisation mussten wir nicht lange auf unseren Symposium Pass warten. Die Stadt war bevölkert von Urban Sketchern aus aller Welt (mehr als 800 Künstler aus mind. 48 Ländern). Ich hatte das grosse Glück gleich am Anfang eine Freundin getroffen zu haben und wir haben dann die wenige freie Zeit in den Symposiums- Tagen zusammen verbracht.

Porto - What a beauty!

 





"You will have the drawing event of your lives!" ...this is what Marc Taro Holmes wrote in his message prior to the Symposium... and he was right: It was the coolest drawing event I've ever experienced!  

But let's begin with some background info:

Porto is the second largest city after Lisbon. The City lies on the northern Banks of River Douro and there are beautiful views to the hilly landscape/cityscape. The city itself is a few km away from the sea. Beautiful beaches are around and the Portwine Porto is known for is made in Vilanova de Gaia. 

Porto, this is where I was during the last days and I have a crazy time behind me together with artists / URBAN SKETCHERS from around the world. I was at the URBAN SKETCHERS SYMPOSIUM, which is held once a year in a different part of the world. This year it was Porto which is one of my favourite cities. What a coincidence.

In the beginning of the year I already booked the flight and the hotel and had to choose which workshop I would like to attend. I got all my favourite four and was so happy about it. 


"Ihr werdet den Mal-Event eures Lebens haben" ...das ist die Nachricht, die uns Marc Taro Holmes vor dem Symposium übermittelt hat...und er hatte recht: Es war absolut das coolste Mal-Event ever!

Aber fangen wir doch einfach mal mit ein paar Hintergrundinfos an:

Porto ist Portugals zweitgrößte Stadt nach Lissabon. Die Stadt liegt auf den nördlichen Bänken des Douro Flusses, der für eine dramatisch gewellte Landschaft und spektakuläre An- und Aussichten sorgt. Die Stadt selbst liegt im Inland, aber traumhaft schöne Strände gibt es am Atlantik, der nicht weit entfernt liegt und in wenigen Minuten erreicht werden kann. Die Portweinkeller liegen in Vilanova de Gaia. Dort lagert der berühmte Portwein der grossen Winzer. 

In Porto also befand ich mich in den letzten Tagen und ich habe eine irre Zeit hinter mir, die hauptsächlich von Künstlern / URBAN SKETCHERS aus aller Welt, von Farben und Formen geprägt war. Ich war auf dem URBAN SKETCHERS SYMPOSIUM, das ein Mal im Jahr stattfindet. Dieses Jahr fiel die Wahl auf Porto. Genau mein Ding. 

Schon Anfang des Jahres hatte ich Flug und Hotel gebucht und sollte dann aus den vielen Workshops vier auswählen, die ich besuchen wollte. Ich hatte Glück und konnte genau die Kurse wählen, die ich mir vorgestellt hatte.