On a quiet, overcast morning, five women sit at a table at the Bend Pavilion with art supplies and sketchbooks laid before them. They’re members of Urban Sketchers Bend who meet every Wednesday at a different location to draw, chat and share artistic techniques. They began meeting after artist Lee Kellogg taught a class at the Deschutes Public Library last year. She had organized an Urban Sketchers group in Santa Fe, prior to the pandemic, before moving to Bend.
Urban Sketchers is an international network. The idea is to experience location sketching from direct observation, rather than photos or memories. The motto is “We show the world, one drawing at a time.” A Seattle illustrator launched the program in 2007 as an online forum. He created a blog so people could share their drawings. In 2009, Urban Sketchers became a nonprofit in the state of Washington. The following year, the first international Urban Sketching symposium was held in Portland. By 2019, there were 300 chapters worldwide.
“I have traveled to a couple of the international events and have been hoping to see a chapter emerge here in Central Oregon,” says Chelsea Schneider, who’s a landscape architect by trade.
Travelers can look up locations for other Sketcher groups and drop in while on vacation. “I looked up on Instagram, Urban Sketchers Paris, and I went across the city and met with 25 people at a park in Paris and drew. They spent three hours and then they were going out to dinner,” sketcher Jana Zvibleman says.
The group has officially applied to be a chapter in the international organization.
“You have to be active for six months,” Schneider says. Benefits include recognition in newsletters. “They call us Sketchers correspondents, so they showcase what people have been sketching from all over the world in this collaborative newsletter,” she explains.
At the Pavilion on Dec. 3, several of the artists used watercolors. Sometimes they spread out around a venue to find a scene they want to immortalize. On this particular day, more than a hundred school-aged children flooded the Pavilion on a field trip to ice skate. Each of the sketchers have different drawing styles and skill levels, capturing the activity in their own way. After sketching for about 90 minutes, the group has what they call a throw down to show and discuss their work.
“I never had any form of training. I started with stick figures and am just barely beyond the stick figures right now,” Jan Gifford, a former teacher, chuckles. “But I love coming because it’s a way to get out, in the winter especially, and you meet such nice people. And it’s fun.”
Urban Sketchers Bend has a regular group of around 10 people. Sometimes they meet 15 minutes early if one of them wants to give instruction about a particular technique. Their recent meeting spots for sketching have included Watershed Coffee Roasters, Strictly Organic and Bevel Craft Brewing. Once a month the group chooses a location outside of Bend such as Sisters or Redmond.
“I really liked Schilling’s Garden Market. There’s a lot of different things you could sketch there,” say Gifford.
Meeting times are Wednesdays, usually 9am, but occasionally they meet in the afternoons around 4pm. Anyone interested in participating in Urban Sketchers Bend can view their weekly schedule on Instagram.
Urban Sketchers Bend
Every Wednesday
instagram.com/urbansketchersbend/
This article appears in the Source December 11, 2025.
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