new haven sketchers share their view of the city at gallery
OPEN-INVITE DRAWING GROUP DISPLAYS THEIR NHV AT CREATIVE ARTS WORKSHOP GALLERY
Walking home on a Thursday night, I was confused as to why 20 people were outside G Cafe East Rock in pitch darkness. The coffee shop was neither open nor hosting an event, yet the gaggle sat on benches and high tops, sketching in complete silence, bundled up outside on the first chilly day of November. I strolled up to Ben Canaan, local zine creator and painter. "Is this the New Haven Sketchers?" "Yep. The sun went down, but we're still sketching."
The group is not associated with the sneaker company. Instead, it is an informal, open-invite group of people who meet at different New Haven locations to draw, paint, and sketch their viewpoints. This past Friday, they held their first art exhibit, with regular members' binder clipping their notebooks to a wooden post with scenes of the city displayed for everyone to see. They've sketched the Mill River Trail, Temple Plaza, Yale Art Gallery, and other coffee shops like Atticus Market. Cofounders Celia Poirier, Alex Krofta, and Ben Canaan helped facilitate over 15 notebooks on display for the weekend. It was a fascinating look at how other people see the city. I spoke to some sketchers to hear the stories behind their displayed artwork.
“This sketchbook on the right was from a meeting of the New Haven Urban Sketchers, which is like this. It's sort of a group like older people, and they've has been around forever. At this meeting I reconnected with Celia. We were the same year at UConn. I hadn’t seen her since freshman year ten years ago. We started talking and met up again to sketch and do our own open air drawings, and it sort of evolved into what is happening now.
I like painting what’s not supposed to be seen, like the cherry picker on the right in front of the arches by the Yale Art Gallery, or the abandoned power plant on the left. It’s cool looking. Hopefully it’s torn down soon because it’s, like, toxic, but for now it looks pretty neat.” -Ben Canaan
“This person on the left is actually in the show as well. We went out late one night, freezing freezing cold, like everyone wasn’t sure we were going to make it happen. This was at G Café on Orange, I was like, forget drawing architecture, I’m going to draw these freezing cold people drawing. I made it a spotlighted focus on the actual activity. And at the end it was so cold that I almost left before the critique, and had to borrow all of his gear.” -Jesse Peck
“I drew this at my first meeting. I was really scrared going in, but it really wasn’t scary. Since I graduated art school this gives me something that I have to do.” -Soumya Garg
“I like writing quotes I hear instead of the location.” -Celia Poirier
“I was mad at both of these and wouldn’t share them in the group. But then I shared them and people seeme to like these a lot, so I was like oh shit okay.” -Alex Krofta
“This drawing is from right outside. This is from one of the earlier meetups. My sketchbook is my everyday. It has my lab notes from the week and then I’ll draw on the weekends, so there are no two pages that are both drawings. It feels scary to have my personal notebook up for display.” -Loren Wilson
