Article: “33 beautiful sketches of Leicester by global artists on lockdown” by Andy Baker. Leicester Mercury

I was featured in Leicester Live in an article titled “33 beautiful sketches of Leicester by global artists on lockdown.” The piece explored the online community sketching event I organised during the 2020 lockdown through the Facebook group #virtualsketchleicester, hosted within the successful global Virtual Sketch community founded and run by Anne Rose Oosterbaan.

With her support, we were able to create a special Leicester event on 10th May 2020, inviting her followers and sketchers worldwide to join a virtual walk through the city using Google Street View. To give participants more choice of scene, I also took a series of photographs of my favourite Leicester streets during my allotted daily outdoor time, which the virtual visitors could use as additional reference material.

Over 70 artists from countries including China, Japan, Australia, Costa Rica, and France took part, producing more than 100 drawings and paintings of Leicester. The article highlighted how the project brought people together during a difficult time, showcased the city’s architecture to an international audience, and encouraged creativity and connection. Leicester Live also created an online gallery of some of the artworks, which can be viewed here: Leicester Live.