Expressing anger

I'm not even sure it's anger. But I'm a very black and white person. I can go from happy happy to despair in the blink of an eye. I certainly wasn't going to be able to paint clouds that day.

Glasnevin Cemetery

It was a perfect late summer's day. I love roaming among the old graves in Glasnevin Cemetery. I always seem to find myself in the older section of the graveyard, where trees grow all around the tombstones. There's a great variety of styles, although not quite as imposing as in a French graveyard, where even the smallest village has family crypts and ornate stonework.

Apparently, there is some disease decimating the trees, so I thought it would be good to sketch one before they all disappear. Glasnevin won't be the same if all the trees die. I wonder are they planning to plant new ones?

This was the sketch as done on location. I added the dramatic purple background at home, as well as some texture with markers and pencils.

Then I did a quick second sketch before going to the café and getting an icecream. Aren't we lucky to have a café in a cemetery??!!

New Work available on my website

I have uploaded new works on my website. These are currently unframed, so I can ship them anywhere around the world. Contact me for shipping costs. Click here to see them. 

Distractions - gouache

Why do I think that I might be able to paint something in gouache, a medium I don't know well, when it's eluding me in a medium I know well, watercolours?  Still, I think it's good to have fun rather than following a linear path.

Market in Seattle

Playing with this scene from Seattle with Suhita's online group. We'll be looking at the same scene again in a week's time, so it will be interesting to see what comes up then! I know I need to make stronger darks. It just doesn't come naturally to me!

And here is the second version. I'm not good at doing the same scene twice in sketches, but there's definitely much to be learned from doing that. I do it all the time when it comes to painting, so why should it be different when I'm sketching??

Thumbnails 2

Cerulean Blue + PV19, and Ultramarine Deep + Burnt Umber

I really don't know where I'm going with these, but if I keep playing, something will happen eventually.

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When things are going off course, I just go back to watercolour thumbnails. I always enjoy painting them. Even if they don't lead me anywhere in particular. 

Conclusion from this lot? I like diagonals and hard edges. And I do like to drag a painting knife or a card through the paint,

For the first two, I used some leftover Sennelier Grey and Warm Grey. I also had some Lunar Blue and Alvaro Warm Grey that I threw in the mix! Then, I reverted back to my usual colours.

Thumbnails Soft effect

On Fabriano Unica print paper. Used a Hake brush. And too much water. It was fun to explore. You never know where you're going to fly.

The first one I like. Used a round soft Daler Rowney brush to soften the caterpillar in the sky. The others, not so much, although I did enjoy pulling rain with the hake brush!

Thoughtful mountain

I'm circling through feelings. On this day, it was "thoughtful". Which I think I managed to express, despite myself. Isn't that ironic? I painted the sky with Cerulean Blue and PV19, using a hake brush. Carrying far too much water. There was lovely layers and directions expressing clouds and rain. It all merged into a meh sky. I lifted a good bit of the watercolour on the mountains. I was using Saunders Waterford paper, and the lifting was quite neat. It doesn't look at all like I had intended, but tools matter, particularly brushes. So, there you go. 

Grattan Bridge on a sunny day

It's wonderful to have a sunny day for sketching. It doesn't happen too often here. The focus was a building at the bottom of Capel Street, on the corner with Grattan Bridge. But you know me, I have to sketch what I want to sketch. Sometimes, it's what's been chosen by the person who organised the outing. Sometimes it's not.

I sat on a bench on Grattan Bridge and all I could see was those beautiful clouds, and the dome at the church on Cooke Street.

Also, we had a reporter from the Irish Independent who interviewed us about what we do. It was all very casual and good fun. Have a look at the article and video here.

By the second page spread, I was tired, probably dehydrated, and definitely hungry. But the light was so amazing that I just kept sketching! I crashed later.

Thumbnails needed

This is what I want. I love the softness of it. I love the elemental power of it. Let's see how much I will get distracted before I'm able to move from this postcard format to a quarter sheet watercolour. 

 

Rain over the mountains - I keep trying

This time, I moved to Saunders Waterford, cold press. Still lifted too much with kitchen paper. I do like the mix of PV19 and Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, very diluted, to give warmth to the sky.  I used Cerulean Blue in the mix for the clouds. It's too opaque and grainy, but I do like the effect all the same. I'm still too tied to the photo I'm working from. I want to explore something more elemental, that feeling of awe I felt when observing those heavy clouds and showers making mountains disappear in an instant. More experimentation needed.

Paper matters

 Paper does matter. Or how to express the softness of clouds on textured paper?

I used Bockingford paper here, cold press. I seem to have a rather large stash of it. It's not quite suited to how I want to express clouds, as the grain of the paper appears too strongly when I lift paint with paper towel. Still, there is something of my current energy here that appeals to me. I was inspired by an evening at Lake Tekapo when the rain clouds kept spilling over the large mountains on the right. 

It looks better in photo than in reality. Just one of those things.

Blackrock on a sunny day

About three weeks behind in my blog, probably 5 weeks or more if you're reading this on Instagram. I'm painting and sketching more than I can keep up with.  

We were in Blackrock, a suburb of Dublin, with lovely views over Dublin Bay. The sun was shining. It was hot on the main street, but considerably cooler and windier by the sea. I had to feel both. Which made for a busy afternoon. 

And thankfully it wasn't all boring blue skies. There were plenty of clouds zooming by so I could indulge in my current cloud obsession. Took a good bit of artistic license with the view. But so glad that the twin chimneys at Poolbeg are still there, and there are positive signs that they are not going to be pulled down yet. The ESB is actually going to repaint them very soon. The red is quite faded in reality. 

Onto the Main Street to warm up. The red brick of these houses was glowing, in my mind anyway, as I was facing into the sun. I'm glad I had drawn a box before sketching them, so I still had room for a second sketch on the same page. Lots of lovely buildings around Blackrock. A pity that the shop signs are not all as interesting as the Janet Carroll Estate Agents.

Then I felt the need to go back to the seafront to cool down. The wind was stronger. I spilled most of my water, then whatever water was left went flying around the page. Here is the resulting sketch!

Larger isolated shower

Moved up to half sheet. Used Saunders Waterford cold press paper. Wasn't quite ready for the madness of Fabriano Unica in that size. I'm still exploring my sense of connection. Whether I'm grounding myself or resonating with the pulse of the Universe, this is how it feels. I'm not sure if I'm painting as a form of somatic therapy. But I'm loving it. I hope you like it too.

Watercolour on gesso

I can get easily distracted. Louise Fletcher has some videos of artists using watercolour on gesso in her Art Tribe, probably because many students are interested in watercolours. I tried it. Although I was using watercolours, it's not watercolours. If you want these effects, try other media. It's not what watercolours is about. I don't want to be able to lift that much. I don't want to paint like an oil painter.  End of experiment.