Freemasons' Hall

I'm still in catch-up mode. With the coronavirus doing the rounds in Europe, I'm keeping a low profile. You can't avoid going outside and meeting people, but I'm definitely avoiding big gatherings! So for the next while, expect to see sketches from a while back and some work done indoors.

So, a few weeks ago, we went to the Freemasons' Hall and enjoyed sketching in the amazingly ornate rooms that seem too large for the building on the outside. It's like walking into a Tardis. They opened specially for us, and even turned the heat on so we wouldn't be cold. And they had an information panel welcoming us to the Grand Lodge. So sweet! I'd say that their heating bill is probably pretty steep, though.

And the great news is that the Freemasons' Hall now has a café and bar and it's open to the public. We were the only ones there - best kept secret in Dublin. It's really lovely and relaxing!

Interestingly enough, I sketched the same rooms that I did the last time we were there. I still felt pretty overwhelmed, but I was able to draw a more general view. Maybe I am learning and developing as an artist after all. There are days when it doesn't feel like it, though! So it's always good to look back a few years and compare! I did add the colour at home afterwards. It didn't feel appropriate to deploy the watercolours in such grand rooms!

And if you're puzzled by the quotes, well, I'm starting on my next Bloomsday project, in parallel with the Olivier Cornet Gallery exhibition, The Morphing Feminine! As I did previous years, my plan is to sketch away, and as I progress through my sketches, establish connections with the text and the theme of the exhibition. We'll see where it goes!

"Windy night that was I went to fetch her there was that lodge meeting on about those lottery tickets after Goodwin’s concert in the supperroom or oakroom of the Mansion house. He and I behind. Sheet of her music blew out of my hand against the High school railings. Lucky it didn’t. Thing like that spoils the effect of a night for her. "

"Hop! You will dance attendance or I’ll lecture you on your misdeeds, Miss Ruby, and spank your bare bot right well, miss, with the hairbrush. You’ll be taught the error of your ways. At night your wellcreamed braceletted hands will wear fortythreebutton gloves newpowdered with talc and having delicately scented fingertips. For such favours knights of old laid down their lives. (He chuckles.)"