about

I am an artist, author and journalist who has written several books about drawing, including Sketch Your World and Pen and Ink. I studied fine art at Winchester School of Art, and wrote my master's dissertation at City, University of London on the collection and accessibility of sketchbooks in the UK. I formerly freelanced at the Guardian and The Art Newspaper, among other places, and was a judge in the Jackson's Open art competition in 2016. I also work at the UCL Institute of Education Library, London. 

There's a list below of places where my work has been shown. I have had work in the Jerwood Drawing Prize show, and prints of my work have been on sale in IKEA stores worldwide. Items related to my exhibition at Wolseley Fine Arts in 1996 are held at Tate Library at Tate Britain. I was on the advisory board of Urban Sketchers (2011-19), and a member of its editorial team. I was a founder member of the London Urban Sketchers group. I also blog regularly on the Urban Sketchers international website, and write for a variety of art magazines. I live in Stoke Newington, London. 

I appeared on NBC Nightly News on 20 January 2018 in a report about the rise of the Urban Sketchers movement: this is a link to it. There are interviews with me in Drawing Attention and on the Jackson's blog, here, which say a bit about the way I work. If you're doing a school project, or have any questions about my work, it's fine to get in contact.

Bibliography
Sketch Your World (Apple Press, UK, North Light, US, Shanghai People's Fine Art, China, Page One, Asia, Eyrolles, France, Christopher Verlag, Germany, Cite Publishing, Taiwan, and Art Books, Korea, 2014)
Dream, Draw, Design My Garden (Rockport, 2015), an Amazon Book of the Year 2015
Pen and Ink (Frances Lincoln, UK, 2016) and in French (Pyramyd), German (Michael Fischer), Spanish (Editorial Gustavo Gili), Portuguese (GG Brasil) and Dutch (Librero) editions

Selected exhibitions 

2021 Drawn Poetry 2020, Stadswekerij de Kas, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2017 Sketch 2017, a touring group exhibition of 100 sketchbooks showing at the Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough, Black Swan Arts, Frome, Plymouth College of Art, Devon, and the Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University

2017 Group show, Timberyard Soho, London W1
2014-16 Urban Sketchers London, Timberyard cafe, Old Street, London

2013 Sketchbooks, Greater Victoria Public Library Central Branch, Canada 

2013 Seeing the World, One Drawing at a Time, Ackland Museum of Art store, South Carolina, US

2012 Urban Sketchers London group show, Foyles bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London

2012 Grand Designs Live, London
2011 N16 Pop-up, Stoke Newington, London
2010 Group show, Oxo Gallery, London
2009-12 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Park, London

2008-14 Skylark Galleries artist-run space, Oxo Tower, London

2006-07 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London, and tour
2004 Hunting Art Prizes, Royal College of Art, London, and tour
1997 University of Surrey, Guildford, solo show
1996 In Search of England, Wolseley Fine Arts, London, solo show
1993 Paintings, Barbican Centre, solo show
1989-92 Studio Gallery, Bristol

My prints of London scenes were on sale at IKEA stores worldwide throughout 2012.

Radio
Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4, 25 January 2014. Interviewed by Aasmah Mir about the urban sketching movement, along with the artist Simone Ridyard. We appear about 15 minutes into the programme. Listen here. 

Television
20 January 2018, NBC Nightly News. Interviewed and filmed for a report about urban sketching. Don't blink: I'm not on screen long. Watch it here.

Other publications

Urban Sketching Handbook: Techniques for Beginners by Suhita Shirodkar (Quarry, 2021)

Digital and tangible: the accessibility of sketchbooks in the UK's memory institutions, Art Libraries Journal, 44 (4), October 2019
My drawings are also featured in:
Manchester Sketchbook 2 (Mancunian Books, 2018)

5-Minute Sketching: People by Pete Scully (Apple Press, 2016)
Creative Sketching Workshop by Pete Scully (Apple Press, UK, 2015)
Archisketcher by Simone Ridyard (Apple Press, UK, 2015)
Huffington Post, Urban Sketchers at Covent Garden (and How to Become One) (10/9/2014)
The Urban Sketching Handbook: Architecture and Cityscapes by Gabriel Campanario (Quarry, 2014)
Drawing included in 10 Great Places to Draw on Local Inspiration, USA Today (27 April 2012)
The Art of Urban Sketching (Quarry, 2012) by Gabriel Campanario
No Such Thing as a Free Ride?: A Collection of Hitchers' Tales (Cassell Illustrated, 2005), edited by Simon Sykes and Tom Sykes
The Artist's Sketchbook (Collins, 2002), by Lucy Watson

Editor of Artists & Illustrators magazine, 2001-04

Editor of Discover Art magazine and bimonthly digital magazine, 2013-15
Listed in David Buckman's Artists in Britain Since 1945

Collections
Tate Library, Tate Britain

University of Surrey Collection
Hampshire County Council contemporary art collection

Berardo Collection, Lisbon

Hagan Arts collection, US

Freelance journalism
Clients include New Statesman, the Art Newspaper, the Guardian, Art World, Discover Art