Donations have paid for the planting of 14,000 trees

Sally Jenkins chats to Tim Griffiths about his Sketching For Trees project, which is aiding reforestation in Madagascar.

T IM GRIFFITHS is an urban sketcher.

He sketches life as it is, on location, and as it happens.

"I don't look for an artistic set-up," he explains.

"I'm just as happy painting bins in a back alley as I am sketching a countryside view." Urban sketchers don't work from photos or reference material - they are interested in real life.

The urban sketching movement started in 2007 when Gabriel Campanario, an American journalist and illustrator, created an online forum.

He stated that it was "for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities where they live and visit, from the window of their homes, from a café, at a park, standing by a street corner... always on location, not from photos or memory." From that small beginning, urban sketching chapters formed across the world, including groups in Birmingham, Devon, Yorkshire, Edinburgh and elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

"I go out with my folding chair, watercolour paints, ink and paper and create a picture in around forty-five minutes to an hour," Tim explains.

"I love it because urban sketching gives you the time to pause, sit, look and absorb.

"Often a passer-by will strike up a conversation as I'm working. But I do get some weird looks if I'm painting dustbins!" Urban sketchers often meet for a "sketch crawl".

This is a group day out spent sketching from life.