Urban Sketchers is a worldwide collective of people who, as the name implies, like to sketch their urban environment. They head into town with their sketchbook, markers, paints and easels, sit down, observe their surroundings and create.

In Kunming, it is the Canadian Roz Weitzman who — together with her friend Ong Beng Choo (王明珠) — took the initiative to gather like-minded artists and founded the local chapter of Urban Sketchers.

Roz has lived in Kunming since 2011, and started drawing in 2016. A couple of years later she joined the Seven Colours watercolour studio (绘馆艺术), which resulted in a solo exhibition in the Beichen Fortune Center rotunda in 2018.

Roz has previously expressed her creativity in two cookbooks she has published, one with Beijing cuisine and one with Yunnan recipes. Since 2016 she spends her time on painting and sketching, and is currently studying silk painting.

Ong Beng Choo is a Singaporean artist who lives in Kunming.

She is one of the Urban Sketchers who often includes writing in her drawings, creating a visual diary.

The Urban Sketchers manifesto says: "show the world, one drawing at a time".