St George's University School of Medicine
Northumberland Road
Newcastle
(markers in A5 sketchbook)
I was really looking forward to the Usk Annual Event when it came to Newcastle. It would be a great opportunity to meet urban sketchers from across the country and even from other countries, I thought. So I cheerfully turned up on Friday afternoon. I'd missed the opening speeches, if there were any, and sketchers had already scattered across the immediate vicinity of the University and St Thomas's Church. I began to get an inkling of how isolating such a big event might turn out to be.
Anyway, I set off and finding a doorway to draw, settled down on some stone steps outside the City Hall and began to draw the doorway of St George's University School of Medicine.
Having an interest in and perhaps a love of cars makes drawing them easier, I'm sure. I have neither, so I struggled. By the time I'd finished, the car had, of course, driven away, and I, sitting on the steps of the City Hall, found myself trapped behind barriers that had been set up to contain the queue for the next performance. A kind man in a hi-viz vest let me out.
Still, it seemed a decent start to the USk Annual Event. However, when I got back to the main event near the university and joined in the Throw Down, I started to realise how lonely I was feeling. Oh, there were people there I knew, some of them even my friends, but they were either involved in the organising or very much wrapped up in their small cliques. I'm not fond of big events if I'm honest, and this proved to be much bigger than anticipated, and quite uninvolving for me.
As people wandered off in groups to different venues (quite a few going off to eat), I found myself standing on my own. I made the decision to go home and not return for the following day's event.
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