Celebrating our sketches – July 2019

I have the wonderful fortune of writing you from Singapore this month, where I’m thrilled to be back creating two new murals. Besides being an inspiring microcosm of so many different cultures from across Asia (something which makes my heart endlessly happy), Singapore also happens to be an incredibly verdant city.

Each day on my short walk to the office, I’m amazed by how much green there is around me — by the sidewalks overflowing with spider lily plants and bird’s nest ferns, and by the towering yellow flame and rain trees overhead that help create some much-needed shade.

And so as our July sketching challenge kicked off two weekends ago, I couldn’t help but smile as an unmistakable nature-inspired theme took shape — through the more than 100 sketches you created, there were mountains and meadows of wildflowers; there were winding coastal paths and cascading waterfalls. The vibrant botanical focus of your sketches felt like a fitting parallel to the lush world of Singapore I’ve been experiencing.

Even more fun, however, is that several of you not only drew inspiration from nature — you drew *with* nature. There was Katherine in Herefordshire, England, who went wandering with her inks and created a beautiful print with the help of a few bramble leaves:

There was Steve in the south of England, who after an afternoon of painting Studland Beach — in his words, “very properly and badly” — finally got his ink out, reached for a twig, and in a matter of seconds, captured the beach in the very way he’d been trying to achieve all day:

And there was Ali in Peak District National Park, who captured her view “with a single bilberry and the stem of a soft rush”:

While I love Ali’s expressive sketch, what I love just as much are the words and message she shared with it — a message that feels like the perfect note to open this review on:

This month’s motif of sketches needs little introduction — it is simply a joy to be presenting just a handful of the many moments you all shared that were inspired by the natural landscapes around you. From the vineyards of Austria’s Wachau Valley to the snow-capped peaks encircling Lake Tahoe, thank you for sharing your world with us each and every month.

To view the rest of the images from our July 2019 sketching challenge, all you need to do is visit this link to see the entire gallery — and even if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can still view it in your browser.

Moment Sketchers, here’s to another amazing month celebrating the world and its incredible diversity of landscapes…see you in August!