Cherry Blossoms

15 April, at long last, mild enough and dry enough to sit outside for a bit without coat, woolly hats and mittens! Had to sketch the neighbours' cherry blossoms over the wall! Just playing with lots of art materials on thin cartridge paper.

 

Capel street journey

There is so much to discover on Capel Street. We are progressing with our slow journey. I could take twice as long and still find lots to sketch. It's an area that was neglected for many years, but now that it's partly pedestrianised (watch out for high-speed scooters though!), there is more space to notice the old buildings hidden behind ugly shopfronts. In a few years' time, it probably will be prettified and won't be half as interesting. And yes, the lunch sketch was a very basic drawing to start with!

  

Mark making

I repurposed that ethereal yellow and pink experiment I did last week. Adding elements from the landscape, but not tryint to make it into a "picture". My intention is to crop this and see where it goes. The trick with cropping is not to start with something I like too much. This one is in danger of falling into that category. And the one done in black in grey is probably too pretty too. I need to crop them before I think too much!!

Both are inspired by my walks on the Bolus peninsula during my residency at Cill Rialaig last year. Funny how it's just now that I'm coming back to that landscape!

 

Bringing a little book with me again

From Bear Mrkt Stillorgan, in a small pocket Moleskine sketchbook. It's not much, but I have found it hard to sketch in my neighbourhood lately. So, it's a start.

Whatever is on my desk

Some days, I just don't have the energy to go out sketching or to paint. Then I just take a few favourite objects and I draw them. And I love dropping watercolour or water onto watersoluble ink and watching the movement of pigments on the page.

 

Sketching in town with Kim

It was wonderful to catch up with Kim, whom I had met in Mumbai. She was in Dublin for a brief visit. We started the morning with scones and tea in Bewleys, then a little bit of sketching in St Stephen's Green. We had to take shelter from the rain, twice. But it was fun. The second time, a group of tourists joined us under the canopy. I couldn't see anything, so I drew one of the guides and two of the tourists. I think anyone can call themselves a tour guide these days. They didn't even know what year Ireland became independent. It's 1921. They thought it was 1939. On the other hand, they told a lovely story about the park keeper continuing to feed the ducks, and both sides (the Irish in the park and the British on top of the Shelbourne hotel) holding their fire until he was safely back inside the park keeper's lodge.

 

Maybe I should stretch my paper?

This one is on A2 heavy cartridge paper, but I'm wondering if I should think about stretching my watercolour paper, as I'm using lots of water lately. 

Pencils 4 Tea 9 April 2026

Been enjoying minimal tools (for me) at Pencils 4 Tea lately. 

Textures in landscape

From a peaceful feeling to too much texture? Not so much too much texture, but all-over-the-place texture. I do like the feeling of soft pastel on Fabriano Unica paper, though!

As you can see, I'm back in an experimentation phase!

At the hairdresser's - what my brain sees

There is a great view from the window at my hairdresser's, Eddie Doyle of Blackrock. I decided to superimpose it over the elements on the counter in front of me. Maybe next time I'll just go and stand at the window?

Capel street - the journey continues

Enjoying playing with the elements in front of me in the city.  I deconstructed the Louis Copeland shop window and framed it with street elements. And drew just want interested me in the view down Henry street towards the Spire, with the dome from Penneys on the left. I'm having fun experimenting and not worrying too much about accuracy - there are many sketchers in our group who can do that much better than me, and that's not how I see the world anyway!

Looking out my window

Something I haven't done in a long time - drawing the view outside my window. I think I haven't done that since Covid. Did so much sketching at home during the Pandemic that it put me off, I guess. But I want to draw more, and get back to loose expression in my sketches, rather than trying to be someone I'm not.

First version, I thought I was using watersoluble ink, but it was actually waterproof. So I had to do a second one. 

PS: I'm still using an old watercolour mini palette, in the spirit of using up art supplies!

 

Intensity

And then when I had a bit more time, I pushed the experiment further, on a square of Fabriano Unica paper, using watercolour, iridescent acrylic ink and soft pastels.

What did I enjoy about today's studio session? The flow of pigments, watercolour and acrylic ink pushing against each other. And the strong colours. And the marks with pastel.