Greetings from Sydney, Australia

Hi,  I’m Alissa and from Sydney, Australia

I am very excited to be travelling to Barcelona in just a few weeks to learn, meet and sketch with so many names and faces .Some I I know from the online art community and there will be lots of new people too. I am not sure how I am going to fit it in only 4 days ! The thought is a little overwhelming. But please say hello , even it is just a 5 minute conversation.

Chris, Liz & I are the Sydney contingent (that we know of) We met on Saturday to discuss the finer details of travel , Barcelona , sketching and life, as well as eating lunch and drinking tea. (Liz is not really that short, she was sitting in low arm chair)

Chris, Liz, Alissa (me)

I have been drawing on and off all my life, but in the last five years I have been sketching daily, and get an itchy mind and fingers if I do not put pencil to paper for more than a few days.

I sketch with watercolour pencils & my Lamy Safarai Joy ink pen – sometimes one or the other, some both together. I carry my Moleksine watercolour sketchbook (20 x 13 cm) with me everyday – you never know when you will get the chance to sketch . I am involved in a variety of  online groups – Everyday Matters (where it all began for me) , Kate Johnson’s Nature Sketching, Urban Sketchers of course and a few others . I have a variety of interests and styles.

We have a fairly active Urban Sketching group in Sydney (led by Liz Steel). I am also very fortunate to live in Sydney city and pass by some amazing sites and buildings everyday on my way to work.



National Maritime Museum and Young Endeavour tall ship

City skyline in Sydney from Darling Harbour

I am looking forward to learning so much in the Workshops I have enrolled in. There were so many wonderful instructors to choose from but I ended up choosing workshops to assist me to grow in what I already do, rather than push boundaries to explore in a different directions .  I am enrolled in workshops about perspective and  people. I'll see some of you at them !





a very quick sketch on the Pyrmont pedestrian bridge as people stopped for the Bridge to open and let a boat through.  

Some of you may remember that I had signed up to go to Lisbon two years ago and had to cancel due to a medical emergency . At the time many of the instructors and participants  sketched in a special little Moleskine that Liz Steel organised and handed around. You may not remember sketching in it ,, but it meant a  lot to me at the time and still brings tears to my eyes when I look at it. It was a big time in my life. I hope to meet some of you this time.

And this Urban Sketchers Symposium is a big adventure too . It is a long way from Australia !

I post everything to flickr, a little to facebook and I have a new blog, which I am still figuring out .


I am so excited that I drew my travel adaptor as part of my "trip prep" drawings.......