Finding Beauty in Urban Settings, Yaoling Lee’s Urban Sketching  

Urban Sketching is visual art form in which artists draw on location in the cities, town, or villages they live in or travel to. The Urban Sketchers movement is said to have begun in 2007. In Belize, one artist has taken up urban sketching to represent beauty in urban settings that may not be attractive to the untrained eyes. Yaoling Lee is compiling some of her best pieces from Belize City in a book that is set to be released this year entitled “Beautiful Belize City”. She is also passing on her skills to whoever is willing to learn, through six workshops over the course of the coming weeks. News Five’s Paul Lopez met with Lee in the hustle and bustle of downtown Belize City to learn more about her work. Here is that report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Visual artist Yaoling Lee sees beauty in places where many may not find it. Tuesday morning’s hustle and bustle in the heart of downtown Belize City is just that to most people, pedestrians going about their busy day, vehicles meandering through narrow streets, and architectural structures from Belize’s colonial past.  But in Yaoling Lee’s world, all this is inspiration for her creative process.

 

Yaoling Lee, Visual Artist

“What I was doing is the urban sketching in watercolor and I start from sketching, so quick pencil drawing. Then I lay down the wash. What I did is lay down the first wash.”

 

What Yaoling Lee does is referred to as urban sketching. An urban sketcher captures what they see from direct observation. Yaoling Lee sketches what she sees and feels, while trying not to interfere with what reality presents.

 

Yaoling Lee

“Since I live here, I live in Belize City and I spend most of my time around here and I drive around often to find a scenery to paint. People ask me how I chose my scenery. It is hard to tell. Sometimes it is only because the house looks just right, the light is just right, sometimes because there is a sparkle light, and sometimes it is only because of the mood, I love it.”

 

 

 

 

Yaoling Lee’s work requires her to engage in a practice that has seemingly been lost in today’s age. That is the art of taking time to stop and appreciate wonders before our eyes presented through movements, shapes, and colors.

 

 

 

 

Paul Lopez

“Does colors or the location you select do they any at all depict any at all the character in terms of the culture of communities, Belize City in specific?”

 

Yaoling Lee

“Oh Yes, the first comes to my mind is those colonial houses. They are so beautiful.”

 

 

As Yaoling Lee demonstrated her artistic process, spectators gathered around to observe.

 

Yaoling Lee

“I need to add a person because I can’t do it now, because it is all wet. It will smear to everywhere. Usually I take time, sometimes I have to stop and continue later. But at least you capture the pencil drawing and that is the first wash. It is coming down so it is not good.”

 

 

 

That sketch, in its final form, looks like this finished piece. It took Yaoling Lee two and a half hours to complete this piece. It is one of the featured paintings in her soon to be released book titled “Beautiful Belize City”. The book features twenty-one of her most outstanding, watercolor, urban sketches. In the book, she shares insights on how she created them. Lee also enlisted twenty-one Belizean writers to add a touch of historical background, information and their unique perspective to each piece.

 

 

 

 

Yaoling Lee

“I have to say that the title of this book is called beautiful Belize City. This is how I see Belize City although you might have different thinking. So far, nobody tells me Belize City is a beautiful place.”

 

Paul Lopez

“How do you find the beauty in Belize City, because a lot of people may see it differently?”

 

Yaoling Lee

“Yeah, maybe like a lot of crimes, gangsters?” Not every single watercolor sketch comes out good. It is a process. So, I keep on painting, keep on sketching, keep on drawing. This book is a selection of some of my best work. I am making this book for myself. While I am doing those sketches, traveling around Belize City, I am curious about Belize City. I don’t know about it much, so I brought in those twenty-two Belizean writers to write about those historical background.”

 

 

 

Yaoling Lee says her work can also be viewed as a benefit to society because what is being recorded in her book can be passed on through generations. Lee will also be hosting six urban sketching workshops across five municipalities over the coming weeks.

 

Yaoling Lee

“The first one is this Saturday from the Belizean Museum of Arts, House of Culture and all the workshops are free. Of course you just have to come with your art supplies. You don’t need a lot of art supply. Come with pencil, if you have any watercolor, acrylic. But the most important is bring some papers, but at least one side, white, clean. We are going make a sketchbook from scratch.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.