The final day of the Urban Sketching Symposium. I got up early and had a good breakfast before walking up to the Hub (whenever I say that I think I’m on the Discworld). I wanted to go to Suhita Shirodkar‘s presentation “Bit By Bit Reportage”, which definitely struck a chord with me. I’ve known Suhita through Urban Sketchers for many years and have always been a big fan of her work, especially her recording of old signage in San Jose. We only ever see each other at Symposiums, despite both living in California, but I really enjoyed listening about her various reportage projects done over a long period, ‘bit by bit’ as she says, and it’s very much how I do things too, not realizing that they are reportage. “One sketch at a time collectively tells a bigger story”, one of the phrases she said that stuck in my mind. Once again I sat next to Paris sketcher Yves Damin to capture this talk, I also picked a spot behind someone with purple-blue hair, can’t help sketching colourful hair. “Inspiration is right where you are” Suhita said, I agree, that’s what urban sketching is all about. My Davis drawings over the years have taken on a theme of relentless reportage, following the changes even when I’m not noticing them. She does a lot where she meets and speaks to people, and learns their stories. All in all, a fascinating talk, which was both inspiring and reaffirming. After that, I had a look around the Art Market picking up a new small sketchbook, and then went off on the morning Sketchwalk (which was a long way away, so I took the Metro).

It was over at the Place St. Georges, a nice square with a big playground in the middle and lots of shade. There was at least one workshop happening there, I saw Veronica Lawlor teaching. I went down there with Kalina, but we ended up heading in different directions to sketch, and I settled on this spot looking at the corner of Rue de la Pomme; I wish I lived on a street called “Apple Road”. I found sketchers I knew there, my Italian pal Mauro Doro (he lives in Luxembourg) and Nicola Maier-Raimer (from Hamburg, who I’d met last year), and then Daniel Green (from Minnesota, we have met at many Symposiums now) came by as well. We were joined by Detlef Surrey (from Berlin) and Mat Let (from France, lives in La Rochelle now); I had never met Mat but have followed his great work for a while, and I met Detlef last year in Poznan and was already a big fan. I got his book about the Berlin Wall and so it was great to talk to him a bit more about it, lovely guy. So this was a really nice morning chatting and sketching with friends, it was probably one of the nicest bits of the Symposium, very relaxing. The sketch I did above I had intended to add colour, but I kept stopping and sketching my fellow sketchers instead, that was just as interesting.

The last sketcher above was an artist from Paris called Moriah Costa, who sat and sketched near us (she was taking Veronica’s workshop I think) but I loved her stripey yellow shirt, it reminded me of the Symposium logo mascot. As the morning went on, I figured I should probably head towards the end point, which as it turned out was another rally long way from the starting point, probably about 25 minutes walk at least. It was hot and I needed a cold drink, so I bade my sketching pals farewell and headed towards Place Wilson, a circular plaza with a tree filled garden in the middle. It was getting very hot already and so I found a little bit of shade and quickly drew the statue and fountains in the middle. At first I thought it was Cyrano de Bergerac, probably because I had seen a cafe with ‘Cyrano’ on it, but it looks nothing like him, and I don’t think he had anything to do with Toulouse. This was in fact the poet Pèire Godolin, also known as Pierre Goudouli, who was born and died in Toulouse between 1580 and 1649. He wrote his poetry in Occitan, the language of the South (France not actually being a monolithic French-speaking country for most of its history), and more specifically in the Toulousain dialect. (Incidentally it was only on my last day in Toulouse I realised it is ‘Toulousain’ and not ‘Toulousien’ which I had been saying incorrectly, oops). Godolin wrote the ‘Ramelet Moundi’, a collection of poetry in Occitan. Maybe I will read it someday.

Hot and still thirsty, and complaining about the distance to the end, I walked that long way up to the big Bibliotheque at Rue du Perigord, passing some amazing sketching sites along the way such as the Marché Victor Hugo, the incredible Hotel Ours Blanc and the big colourful carousel, but I reached the end point just after they were done looking at sketches and taking photos, making it totally worth the walk. It was time to get back to the hotel for a rest and maybe find some lunch anyway. I had not explored this part of central Toulouse though so went into some shops along the way. I could probably spend years sketching this place.