Sketch Forest Hills' Landscapes At Art Event Thursday

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The art group Urban Sketchers will be holding a drawing session in Forest Hills Thursday

It aims to help artists capture the urban and natural landscape of Forest Hills Gardens. Those who wish to participate should meet at the LIRR Underpass on 71st Road at 10.30 a.m. June 22.

The session will start at Station Square, an area populated by elaborate architecture from the 1910s. Participants will work to sketch the urban landscape using graphite, charcoal, water color and pastel.

There will then be a working lunch during which sketchers will share their work with each other and exchange advice about how they might be able to improve their skills.

In the afternoon, the artists will head to the local park Flag Pole Green to work.

This is the first time the art organization will be coming to Forest Hills. A spokesman for the New York City chapter of Urban Sketchers, Alan Wernicke, said it is aiming to expand events outside Manhattan and will be hosting sketching sessions in different neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs in the coming months.

NYC Urban Sketchers consists of both professional and amateur sketchers. Its sessions aim to help amateur artists overcome insecurities about working in public rather than in a private studio, according to Wernicke.

The event is free of charge. NYC Urban Sketchers advises participants to bring their own materials and a stool to use while sketching.

Urban Sketchers has 187 chapters in 53 countries around the world, with a total of more than 125,000 sketchers.

Lead image via Jason Das/NYC Urban Sketchers

Second image courtesy of Mark Leibowitz/NYC Urban Sketchers