WATERMARK 2026 DEMO ARTISTS
DEMO ARTISTS
Participants may select a demo(s) to attend on Saturday, September 26th. There is no additional registration, you may just go to one or more of your choice on Saturday morning. Demos will run simultaneously from 10:30am-12noon. They are within walking distance of one another, so if you'd like to sample more than one in the 90 minute session, you may do so at your leisure.
Jenny Jing Zhang
Jenny Jing Zhang is a Chicago-based artist, urban sketcher, illustrator, educator, and architectural designer. With a background in architecture, she began urban sketching in 2016 and has since used her sketchbook as a way to explore cities, observe everyday life, and tell stories through drawing.
Jenny’s work is known for expressive linework, vibrant color, playful perspectives, and an energetic approach to capturing architecture and people. Rather than focusing on perfect accuracy, she encourages artists to respond to what they see and feel, embracing spontaneity, experimentation, and the unexpected moments that make drawing on location so exciting.
An active member of the Urban Sketchers community, Jenny has taught workshops and given demonstrations at multiple Urban Sketchers Chicago Seminars, sharing techniques in composition, perspective, color, and visual storytelling. She has also presented a demonstration at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, connecting and sketching alongside artists from around the world. Her teaching focuses on helping participants overcome the fear of making mistakes, loosen up their drawings, and discover a more personal and expressive visual language.
Beyond teaching, Jenny works across urban sketching, illustration, public art, and commissioned projects, with clients including Park Hyatt Chicago and Soldier Field. Her sketchbooks have accompanied her through Chicago and cities across the U.S., Europe, and beyond, documenting not only how places look, but how it feels to experience them.
At the heart of Jenny’s practice is curiosity. Whether drawing a busy street, a group of people, or a quiet architectural detail, she sees sketching as a way to slow down, look more closely, and build a deeper connection with the places and people around us. See her work here.
Jenn's demo will be at the entrance to Stone Arch Bridge.
Jenny’s Art-
Bill Beaupre
Bill is a retired architect, award-winning watercolor artist, and avid Urban Sketcher. As a landscape artist, he seeks to express the spirit of place that is present in all of nature. A native Minnesotan, the North Shore and surrounding pine forests are his most frequent painting subjects. The elemental meeting of water, rock, trees, and weather found there are endlessly fascinating to him.
He sees Urban Sketching and landscape painting as a Yin-Yang experience. The man-made energy of urban spaces as a complimentary balance to the wild energy of nature. Each with their own unique spirit of place.
Bill has illustrated two books, “Remembering” and “Sam’s Homecoming”, and is a signature member of the Minnesota Watercolor Society, and a member of the North Shore Watercolor Society and Urban Sketchers Twin Cities.
His artwork can be seen on his website: william-beaupre.com
or on Instagram: @bill.beaupre
Bills's demo will be at the steps between Mill City Museum and the Guthrie Theater.
Bill's Art-
Jinjer Markley has been a freelance illustrator and art teacher since 2017, and works primarily in watercolor and gouache. Reference drawing is her favorite part of planning illustrations, and her favorite drawing tools are fude pens and 6B pencils. Jinjer considers scenery to be the most difficult part of an illustration, which is why she loves Urban Sketchers–there’s nothing like tackling your reference drawing challenges in a crowd! She teaches drawing, painting, and color theory classes at Wet Paint and for private groups.
https://www.jinjermarkley.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jinjermarkley/
https://www.facebook.com/wildjinjer
https://cara.app/jinjermarkley
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jinjer-markley-33787b8/
Jinjer's demo will be at Gold Medal Park.
Jinjers's Art-
Sarah Harris is a professional Theater Artist that has fallen in love with the Urban Sketching Community. She is an Administrator for Urban Sketchers Twin Cities. She loves travel sketching and has attended sketching events at the last four USk Symposiums, Chicago Sketch Seminar, Sketcherfest in Edmonds, Madeline Island School of the Arts, and several regional midwest sketching events. She is a workshop instructor at The Refuge in Little Falls, MN. She approaches her sketching practice with playfulness and curiosity. She loves the explorative nature of sketching, meeting new people, and exploring new places, one sketch at a time.
@curioussparkstudios
Sarah's demo will be at the Mill City Farmers Market, next to the Guthrie Theater.
