Albury Wodonga Sketchers group to meet on Friday at QEII square

Albury Wodonga Sketchers will have their second gathering at Albury's QEII square at 9.30am today for anyone of any skill level interested in drawing.

Group founder Gregg Wilson moved to the Border from Melbourne two and a half years ago and said he was keen to become involved in the local art scene, but couldn't find many, if any, communal sketching groups.

"I was a member of Melbourne Urban Sketchers group and I just thought that that might be a great thing to get going up here," he said.

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Mr Wilson said the Albury Wodonga Sketchers group was primarily a social opportunity for people to meet like-minded others and share their passion for sketching, but he did one day hope the group would have enough members to be able to join the online international urban sketchers group.

"We need about 10 to 15 consistent members showing up to events, before we make that application," he said.

"I just thought if we can get something going here it would just be nice to have that connection...and there's so many places in Australia that have those urban sketchers groups.

"So if you were in Melbourne or Brisbane or Sydney or something you could look them up and just go along to one of their events and it's just a great way to meet people and see what people are doing in the sketching world, so I think it's good skills development and I think it's good social activity as well."

Mr Wilson said the group was non-competitive.

"It's just for fun and we show each other our work at the end of the day," he said.

"If you want comment on it you can have it and if you don't, that's not a problem ... it's just good to develop a bit of confidence."

Mr Wilson, now retired, said he came to sketch after his professional music career playing piano on cruise ships was cut short.

"I've got a hereditary disease called Dupuytren's contracture, which basically is a growth on the tendons in a hand," he said.

"I've had to have several operations on my hands and of course the scar tissue then doesn't allow the spread of the fingers or it just doesn't work that well, so I had to give all that away."

Mr Wilson said it was great to have the never ending learning curve of sketching to entertain him.

The group will meet once a month and anyone thinking of attending Friday's gathering should RSVP at the Albury Wodonga Sketchers Facebook page.

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