7th Swiss Symposium Of Urban Sketchers: Part One

Just back from Geneva. Whew! Between Poland and Switzerland just two weeks apart, it’s so good to be back on terra firma. I will tell you all about my trip, but as usual, if you’re hoping for some nice sketches of fairytale Swiss streets of half-timbered houses, along with upbeat descriptions of a great time, you’re reading the wrong blog.

But First…

First I must tell you about the course in light and shadow in watercolour in plein air that I will be leading next week in Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, from Friday 19th September to Sunday 21st September inclusive. You probably know my teaching style from my classes, but did you know that there is a wonderful art school right on the seaside in the sunniest part of Ireland? Where you can have a dip in the sea just after a day’s creativity, followed by a nice glass of rosé and a sumptuous meal on the terrace overlooking the strand? If you didn’t know about this lovely place, you should! Artform is an art school in Dunmore East and it has to be one of my favourite places to teach: the students are always relaxed and energised in the beautiful setting, and able to concentrate fully on their art, far from the distractions of everyday life. As a tutor that’s the most satisfying thing of all. Martina O’Byrne runs it and is the most kind and gracious manager you could ever meet.

The course is about painting light and shadow in ink and watercolour en plein air, but it’s about much more than painting something nice when you’re off on a pleasant day’s painting. The course, over three days, will take your skills up a few notches, because I have discovered the key to making a sketch feel as if you’re there. That key is knowing your values, and how to use them. You might have heard the quote “colour gets all the glory, but values do all the work”. It’s a simple phrase and sounds glib, but armed with the knowledge of how to use your values correctly you will be able not just to capture light, but how to express exactly what you want to while bringing the viewer along with you, immersed in your world. Knowing your values means you can make a quick scribble that will be as believable as if you were right there. My approach is that art is part of your everyday life, and by mastering light and shadow you can make the most mundane, the most everyday of subjects glow with inner beauty.

These are a lot more than “scribbles” but in each case it’s the use of values that brings the light. I still have a few places left on the course, and if you don’t have any materials don’t worry – I have everything you need and can bring it on the first day. You can find out more here: https://www.artform.ie/courses/mastering-light-and-shadow-in-plein-air-roisin-cure/ I hope to see you there!

The 7th Swiss Symposium of Urban Sketchers, Geneva 4th-6th September 2025

I had been invited to take part in the symposium early this year, and the workshop proposal I submitted (on light and values!) was accepted. I have only been to Switzerland once before, and that was in Bern a few years ago where I was also teaching for Urban Sketchers Switzerland. This time it would take place in Geneva, and I was delighted to have been asked.

However, other than the work I produced in the workshops themselves, I have some very disappointing personal sketches from the event to share with you. So disappointing that I considered writing off the brand new sketchbook I started in Geneva, giving it up as a bad job. But then I reminded myself that a sketchbook is supposed to be a place of exploration (although what are you supposed to do if you have nothing else?) and decided to soldier on with that in mind. Who knows – perhaps I will make some kind of leap forward by no longer having pride in my sketchbook. On the other hand, perhaps they’re just a bad blip in my œuvre, a glitch, if you like.

The first sketch I did is probably the worst, but it has tight competition. After travelling through the night on a Citylink bus – shoutout to the large family of adults, possibly unfamiliar with Irish cultural norms, who saw nothing wrong with using outdoor voices and eating extremely “fragrant” curry from 1.45am to 4.15am all the way from Galway to Dublin Airport – followed by a 6.00am flight to Switzerland and a train ride, I was tired. The organisers of the sketching event had laid on a visit to the Caran d’Ache factory in Geneva, on the border with France. The tour was well over two hours long with no sitting down bits, and it was warm in that factory, and I hadn’t eaten, drunk or slept since the evening before, so I thought at a couple of points that I was going to faint, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. The factory tour was mesmerising. (It turned out that a couple of us were in the same boat with travel fatigue and near-fainting, but like me they didn’t want to miss a moment.)

Caran d’Ache are world-renowned manufacturers of art and writing materials. As well as pens, they do colouring pencils and wax crayons or all types. A couple of my colleagues use those sorts of dry materials in their work rather than watercolour, and they were beyond excited: I don’t, so I was less excited from a professional point of view, but it was the ingenuity of the machinery that floated my boat. It was as if you’d won the Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory of Roald Dahl fame, and you were trotting around with other winners. Clanking, whirring, lovely woodeny clattering sounds filled the air as coloured leads were extruded like spaghetti, lengths of crayon were chopped and pencils dropped down chutes: some of the machines are old but nearly all have been in constant use for decades. There were computer screens, but nothing was slick or gleaming or behind glass walls, it was very much like floating on a tiny drone and witnessing everything at close quarters. I’ve been on other factory tours, but this one was special. Colour was everywhere, and we were invited to squeeze and feel waxy lumps of the most intense turquoise pigmented proto-crayons and all kinds of other art materials in their baby phase. The tour was given by a young woman called Melanie. We were warned very clearly not to take any photos of ANY of the machinery, but only the close-ups of the products flying through them. “We have worked very hard to develop these machines.” said Melanie, “and we like to keep them secret.”

After the tour, having discovered that there were many weakened people in the group, my colleagues and I went for a fabulous but very expensive lunch. (Everything in Geneva is very expensive.) The salad / poke bowl I had was so good that I decided I am going to eat salads every day forever, and in fact am going to start a “salad sketching challenge” that I will tell you more about in my next blog.

Meanwhile here’s a sketch I don’t hate, partly because I love Aperol spritz and partly because I caught the mouth of my colleague Santi perfectly…and the pencils on the table are from Caran d’Ache, I am pretty sure.

That’s it for Part One. I need a coffee. More in Part Two: The Symposium itself!