United Arts Club

Do what makes you happy. It sound simple. But it's not. I completely enjoyed sketching at the United Arts Club a few weeks ago. I was surrounded by sketchers, we were chatting, there was a lot of banter going on. It was pure joy. And I think that's reflected in at least two of my sketches. And it's wonderful. Urban Sketchers are my tribe. Forever. But I want other things too. I have other pursuits. Like painting beautiful semi-abstract landscapes. When I'm in flow, that makes me happy too. The thing is that, at the moment, I'm finding it a lot harder to get into flow when I'm painting. It comes and goes. It's such an elusive thing. But it doesn't mean that I want to abandon that side of me and just do what gives me immediate joy. A bit of a ramble. We all have different sides to who we are. We can embrace it all. Who says we have to choose, or listen to what others think?

A cut-off teapot

I subscribe to James Gurney's newsletter. I'm not a paid subscriber, but I find that his free newsletter is full of useful tips and inspiration. In a recent one, he talked about working in black and white only to explore values. That resonated with me. Let's call it a seed. I need to write that down somewhere! Done. I always keep little post-its on my bedside table for that purpose. This note will make it to one of my notebooks at some stage. Easier than my Microsot ToDo on my phone, where I have to keep moving things forward if I don't want them to disappear in the large list of things that didn't get done!

Lesson learned? 

1. A light pencil sketch to make sure I could fit the teapot onto the page would have been useful! 
2. I can't resist colour!

More gouache swatching

Trying out three sets of Holbein gouache. Definitely love the Autumn and Winter sets. Too many white mixes in the Spring set. I'll just have to experiment and play.  Too many art supplies, too little time!

Spring set

Autumn set

Winter set - this one was sent to me by Shelley, because she knew it was out of stock in the European shops I was trying to buy it from. I am so lucky to have friends like her!

These shadows are hard!

While we were in New York, I was fascinated by the shadows of the emergency stairs at the front of the red-brick buildings around Greenwich Village. I thought they might make a great subject for painting some day. Well, I tried a little piece with pencil. Not easy! I will park this nudge for a while! Although, it might actually be easier to do in watercolours!

People in Grand Central Station

I felt my people sketches in Grand Central Station were a little stiff. So I decided to practise from photo and figure out what I can improve. I took some photos while I was there and worked from them with a brush pen and some Moonglow watercolour.

Two conclusions:

1. Brush pen makes for looser sketch
2. Overlapping people gives a sense of space

Let's see if I can remember that next time I'm sketching a crowd!  

Street View World Tour

I was just back from New York for one day, and it was time for Street View World Tour. Virtually travelling the world and sketching botanic gardens on this occasion. One was Yves Saint Laurent's house in Morocco,  another a greenhouse in Kew Gardens. I'm not sure about the other two. I was very jet-lagged, but I didn't want to miss Lis Watkins's demo. I did the fourth sketch the following day, as I had to leave early. So I spent probably a little more than the standard 20 minutes!

Swatches

 A few notes about art supplies. The only lesson is that Neocolor II melt in the sun. But they survived!

A week in New York - A Beautiful Noise

No sketches here, but the main reason for going to New York, apart from my big birthday, was to see A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical. It was amazing. I want to hold that feeling in my heart for a long time!

Yes, I bought the tshirt

Yes, I got to say hi to Katie Diamond, Neil Diamond's wife

Yes, I went to The Bitter End, where Neil Diamond first started performing, a long time ago.

Yes, I got my picture taken with Deandre Sevon, the wonderful artist who sings Shilo in the show.

No, I didn't wait to get an autograph from Nick Fradiani and Amber Ardolino, the two principals. But I follow them on Instagram!

 

A week in New York - Part 4 - everything else

In no particular order, some of the other sketches I did while in New York. 

We walked the High Line and came across Little Island, and I got a good vantage point from the top of Pier 53 (I think) to sketch it. It was nicer to look at from a distance than to be actually on it.

Union Square on a warm day. Lots of people working there, either on the phone or on video calls. Would never happen in Dublin. Because 1. Your laptop would be stolen the moment you put it on the chair and 2. Because it's just too miserable (As I'm writing this, in early July, it's 14 degrees and it's been raining all day, and we're actually IN the cloud right now).

We had a great room looking down 8th Avenue and also with a window looking West. Only got to sketch one side! I took lots of pictures and I might explore the other view in a different way.

And on our last day, I got to sketch in Grand Central Station. My people are a little bit stiff, but it was fun. What a beautiful building!

A week in New York Part 3 - Sketching with NYC Urban Sketchers

One wonderful thing about having to travel a day early is that I was able to sketch with NYC Urban Sketchers on the Wednesday and meet up with Alyssa!

After meeting at the Oculus and going for a matcha latte and a chat, we headed to Fosun Plaza to sketch the Wild Couch Party.  It was so good to see Alyssa again. This was our third time meeting, first time in Trinity College Dublin in 2022, second time in Auckland at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in 2023. We will have to plan for 2025!

Later on, Suzala joined us and we continued sketching at the plaza, just taking a different view. It was getting close to lunchtime and it was hot!

And finally we sketched near the Seaport and it was time to say goodbye. And did I mention that it was hot in the city! Such a nice change from Dublin. But important to keep hydrated. Also, did I mention that Suzala and me had never met before. But Uma was right, we got on like a house on fire!

A week in New York - Part 2 - Bryant Park neighbourhood

We both love Bryant Park. We never seem to be too far away from it. And it's a good place to sketch people.

I spent the whole day Saturday with Suzala. We met at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. It's a public library. They even have a cooling centre for the homeless. And a beautiful terrace on the 7th floor. With fabulous views. I only got to sketch one view, but it was worth it Done in direct watercolour, with a tiny bit of pencil. I wanted to go back there on our last day before going home, but unfortunately there was a private event and it was closed to the public. Still, that morning there with Suzala is one of the highlights of the holiday

We could have zigzagged all around Manhattan, but I was happy to sketch in Bryant Park for the afternoon (after a lunch of takoyaki and onigiri from a nearby Japanese street food festival). We were joined by our respective husbands and spent a laid-back afternoon sketching and chatting. Suzala even offered to take us into her home if our flight got cancelled. I simply love the generosity of the Urban Sketchers community. No matter where you go, you can meet and sketch with friends you had never met before!

This one was done on the day we arrived. The jetlag is showing!

And these last two were done after our suitcases were packed and we had checked out of the hotel. Minimum supplies and travel anxiety kicking in. Still, it was the best way to spend a couple of hours before our taxi pickup for the airport.

A week in New York - part 1 - travel

The last of our big trips for this year. New York for my birthday! But Aer Lingus cancelled our flights, due to the pilots' work-to-rule. They cancelled our flight on the way over, but we managed to get on the flight the day before. And then, as we were travelling over, we found out that our flight home was cancelled to and Aer Lingus had moved us to travel home on my birthday. Not happy! Thankfully Brendan managed to talk to a service agent who put us on a later flight on the day we had intended to travel. But when we asked if the seats were together, the answer was no, they were not. So Brendan asked if they had seats together, and it turned out that yes, there were seats together.  Which just goes to show you have to keep asking until you get what you need. 

All that to say that it was fraught. I love flying, but I'm not a good traveller until I get on the plane and the plane takes off. I worry about the taxi, and the queues at checkin, at security, etc. So, I sketch to soothe my nerves as soon as I get to the gate. To be honest, that morning, I was pretty anxious. But less than 24 hours later, it's all worth it. So I never let my anxiety get in the way of travelling the world. And yes, I am aware of my climate impact. It's not pretty. I do drive electric, take public transport and eat almost no red meat. I have also significantly reduced the amount of clothes I buy. It's probably still not enough to offset my carbon emissions from flying. But we probably won't be flying those long distances in 10 years time, whether it's because we're too old or because governments will finally take action on climate, I don't know!

Lots of turbulence as we got closer to Canada. No surprises there. If you look at Flight Radar, you see all the planes literally following each other on that route. It has an impact! Also, saw a major fire somewhere over Quebec (maybe?). It's all happening.

Just one sketch at JFK on the way home. I managed to control my anxiety better, although I was somewhat worried with the traffic in the taxi on the way to the airport. If we think we have a traffic problem in Dublin, it's nothing compared to New York. And New York has a great subway system, which we used plenty! You can tap with your Revolut card on your phone. It's capped at $34 per week. Great value, as we used the subway every day.

And here is my supplies for the trip. I used almost everything, so I was very pleased with myself. I cut my Neocolor sticks in two to half the weight!

Beara - is that Hungry Hill?

I have reached the end of my A4 Seawhite of Brighton accordion sketchbook! I was going to paint, but when I started this scene, it seemed better to just use colour pencil (Plus Neocol + Stabilo Woody).  I just wanted to scribble on the page. I worked from one of the photos I took on my trip to Beara. It's at the top of the Healy Pass. I wonder if the mountain in the distance is Hungry Hill? 

Little scribbles I did on a small piece of paper before starting. Yes, colour is always my instinctual starting point!

At the Hairdressers

Short hair needs maintenance. And I've given up on doing my own colour. The results were too unpredictable. Plus going to my hairdresser is a great excuse for a self-portrait and other doodlings. Since June is Direct Watercolour month, I brought a small palette and one of my Pigment square brushes. I had to figure out how to do my hair colour (with the colour agent on it) with the limited colours I had. It looked very green, until I lifted some of the paint with the slightly damp brush after the watercolour had dried. I'm very happy with how it looks! It looks like I have a big bruise on my face, but that's just how I saw the light and dark. I used a Rosemary & Co eradicator brush when I got back home to lift a little bit of colour, but found that the Stillman&Birn paper didn't react well to it!

I love flowers, but not painting them. Why is that?

I was given two beautiful bouquets of flowers recently. I love flowers. Now, before they waste away, I want to paint them, but it's hard. I don't know why it is I find it so hard to paint flowers? Maybe it's the time pressure? I have to get to them before they fade, even if I'm in the middle of another project. Maybe it's the variety of shapes and colours, and trying to give volume to all those greens. And then white flowers are even harder! I made two attempts, from direct observation, and I was completely overwhelmed by the size and shapes, so I ended up choosing some elements only rather than the whole vase and bouquet. Initially, I thought this is never gonna work. But I added darker elements to one of them today (including a little bit of Stabilo Woody - I'm not a purist anymore!) and I am surprised at the result! So I might have another go tomorrow and see how it goes!

Marsh's Library

It's always lovely to go sketching in Marsh's Library, just beside Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It's a peaceful space, with just a few tourists. And every time, I think I get a little bit better at drawing those crazy bookshelves. Although, looking at my previous attempt, I did pretty good then! But it was a sunny day, a rare occasion in Ireland this summer, and I knew that their inner courtyard would be a lovely space too, where I could use my watercolours. So there you go, two sketches, in my different styles!

 

Clouds and light

 

Maybe I used a little bit too much water for the Seawhite of Brighton paper? Some buckling is remaining. It was a lot worse when it was wet. Another cloudy sky with a bit light hole over the Beara landscape. Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, a touch of PV19. Lots of yellow for the foreground, with Posca, Neocolor and colour pencil for texture. Must try this on watercolour paper.

Here are 4 graphite thumbnails I did before actually painting this. I am learning, aren't I?