Exploring - too much going on

Some days, I can fit in a bit of painting time. That day wasn't one of them.

Still, I'm exploring some of the themes I'm interested in, and playing with watercolour pencils. Nothing wrong with that! 

Sketching while waiting

It was the last week in January, and I had a bit of waiting to do, as I'm often early for appointments. So I drew the car parked in front of mine, and the tree beside it. Then I drew my custard Danish and my teapot and cup. Time went quickly.

 

A wet afternoon at the National Gallery of Ireland

It was a miserable afternoon, but a good few of us turned up to sketch in the National Gallery on the last Sunday in January. I enjoyed going to the Turner watercolour exhibition, where we could see the Vaughan Bequest collection, with a twist. As it is the 250th anniversary of Turner's birth, the National Galleries of Ireland and Scotland swapped their collections. A special treat for January. I also wandered around the gallery, to say hello to a few of my favourite paintings in the general collection. It was a while since I had been, so it felt extra special. And I sketched too, of course. And I continued sketching in the Lincoln Inn afterwards, not quite so successfully, but all in the spirit of experimentation!

Storm - where Land and Sky interact

Storm Eowynn just passed over Ireland (in the early hours of the 24th of January), and I'm thinking about this as I paint more wild watercolour landscapes. I'm thinking of how powerful wind is. You can't see the wind, yet it can cause so much destruction. And I'm thinking of how lucky we are here in Dublin, as we didn't get the brunt of the storm, although the house was creaking a lot. We went for a little walk this afternoon, after the Red warning was lifted, and there is a lot of debris around. Thankfully not too bad.

Not everyone was so lucky, particularly in the West of Ireland. 

Pencils 4 Tea - 23 January

Brilliant session with Pencils4Tea on 23 January. Loved all the poses and the hats - people come prepared to these sessions, lipstick and costumes and good lighting! I need to make more of an effort! And also, I am at least a month behind in posting online. I tried a few times to post in my stories, but then I was getting confused, so now, I've decided that I will post chronologically only. I know it makes it a bit weird and out of synch with my life, but when I look back on my blog or social media, at least things will make sense to me.

Water and Air

 Water and Air. Or Sea and Sky. Another exploration of the elements.

Earth and Sky

Experimenting with the idea of the elemental forces - thinking about earth and air, or land and sky and how the two interact when a storm comes along. Expressed with dry brush, splashing, scratching and wet-in-wet watercolour.

At the Hugh Lane Gallery

At the Hugh Lane Gallery ... and I didn't see a single painting. But I did drop over to the Olivier Cornet Gallery instead and enjoyed their Winter Show. 

I experimented with tempera sticks, Neocolor and continuous line drawing, and had a great time.

Exploration with oil pastels as a first step

As I had used oil pastels in my diary painting, I wanted to try quick ideas using oil pastel on top of a light layer of watercolour. I was using fairly random colours from a set of 48. Three of them appealed to me. So I tried to match the colours and shapes in watercolour in my sketchbooks. I really like the last one. Let's see where this takes me.

Diary Painting

Haven't touched my diary painting since before Christmas (writing this on 21 January). But now, I'm feeling the pull to try new things.

So I went from this (lots of black and ochre ArtGraf:

To this (lots of oil pastel and a layer of matt medium on top:

Sky and sea - or Sky and sky

Moving on from stones and mountains to skies, and maybe seas. I am exploring the elements that inspire me. I haven't really done fire yet, well at least not consciously.

These few were inspired by a sunset I saw from the window in mid-January. Bringing my exploration closer to home and noticing what inspires me. I did these in sketchbooks and loose paper. The different papers really made a big difference. I used an Etchr sketchbook (cold press, I think? - even left page and right page felt very different), a Baohong sketchbook and a quarter sheet of Bockingford cold press.

I like the one with the least texture (number 3) and the one with the most texture (5). Now I need to spend a bit of time with them to see what calls out to me.

Dublin Castle - State Apartments

It was a good day to be in a warm indoors location to sketch. And the State Apartments in Dublin Castle are always such a treat! Not too many tourists on this mid-January day, so I really relaxed into sketching. I had decided to work in continuous line drawing. Well, more or less continuous. And it really helped me to not be overwhelmed by all the detail in front of me. I just kept following the line.  

I'm looking at Liz Steel's Foundations online course again and it's helping me reconnect with sketching in a way that I find satisfying. And Liz is such a generous teacher. If you do her online courses, you get to do them again for free every time she runs a live runthrough. I don't always get to do them, but there is always something new to learn or something old to relearn, so even if I only have the time for a couple of weeks, it's always worth it!

And here are my photos taken on location. I often forget to take these.

Quick portraits

Just a few doodles in a small sketchbook, while on a Zoom call. 

 

Big sky and sea - a different exploration

 Sea and sky - there's a lot to figure out. And that's even before I try it it in watercolours.

Studio book exploration

I keep a studio book. It's a big square Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook It looks like I am ready to move from my rock and mountain exploration to sea and sky (Inspired by Peter Davis, Aquarelman). Let's see where this goes