Not-so-direct watercolour

Direct Watercolour month is starting on 1st June. The last few years, I've struggled to keep up, as it clashed with some of my travels. But this year, I've decided, I will just treat it like my usual studio practise. So, there will be lots of mixed media, but with a strong watercolour foundation. At the moment, I'm going through some of my photos, sketches and notes from my art residency at Cill Rialaig. It seems that I'm finally ready to process my experience there. So the general theme will continue my exploration of my connection with land, air and sea in the West of Ireland. And how I feel connected to the land, and to the Universe! Lots of Irish landscapes. It will be interspersed with holiday sketches. A normal day at the office for me!

This first one is from one of my many walks up and down the road from the Cill Rialaig cottages. It was February, the land was sodden, with a memory of Winter. Not sure about the promise of Spring, but there were some sunny days too. I'm working on Seawhite of Brighton heavy-weight cartridge paper in A2 size. Using very wet watercolour, and oil pastels and Unison soft pastels too. I will probably crop and collage, then use the cropped version as inspiration for a painting on watercolour paper.

Sketch with Suhita 22 May

High-rises are hard to sketch! Starting with a watercolour wash was a good strategy, as I didn't have to worry too much about accuracy. And inktense pencils applied when the paper was still a bit damp gave a nice softness to my lines. I overworked the trees a bit, but I enjoyed the time sketching with Suhita and friends! 

Art supplies for upcoming trips

This could also be called - why do I pack so many pencils in my suitcase? I know that once I'm on location, I will have one yellow, one red, one orange, one pink, one green, a dark blue and a light blue, one dark purple, one light purple and one turquoise. But I have all these lovely pencils! And lots of mixed media supplies! And that's without counting my usual watercolour palette, fountain pens and black and graphite pencils!

Pencils4Tea 21 May 2026

Always takes a while to get used to a new sketchbook. A smaller book, glossier paper, and an offwhite, which I struggled with. Next time, I might bring some white gouache. Always enjoy these sessions, and hate missing them, but summer season has started. Started with a little self-portrait. 

Self-portrait at the hairdresser's

Brush pen, highlighters, acrylic markers and colour pencils. I limit myself to what will fit in my pencil case when I go to my hairdresser. Sometimes it gives interesting results. Even if I look like a Venin (iykyk).

Top of Capel Street - end of the journey

The more you draw, the more you see. I could keep on sketching Capel Street over and over, but we're going to move to another theme, so, it's goodbye for now.

London and St Ives

A trip to London and St Ives. It wasn't a sketching trip, but I managed to fit in more sketches than I expected. A 5-hour train journey was a great opportunity to practise little views in squares. And on the way back, a good excuse to try some new magic pencils I bought at the Tate. Weather in St Ives was cold and showery, so I didn't sketch much. But our hotel had a spa and a pool, so I enjoyed some much-needed relaxation. Our cat was happy to see us home. Though he doesn't look happy in the picture!

 

Yellow and red in Phibsborough

After aimlessly walking around for a while, I decided to sketch everything yellow that I came across in this residential street in Phibsborough (inspired by a recent USk Malaga theme!!). When I ran out of yellow things, I moved to red. Not a big vista sketch, but better than going home empty-handed.

The little book of everything

 Random sketches, from observation, playing with repetition. Inspired by Andrew James.

More circles

A thought - is it about protecting my energy, setting my boundaries? I have had something pulling on my energy lately. It's taken me a long time to realise, than it came to me after I had painted these little beauties and I was writing in my studio book.  A series of protective circles.

Various papers (cold press, Etchr, Seawhite of Brighton, etc.). The ones I like best have Glacier Green in them. And Haze Indigo, I think.

Each is about the size of closed fist. My hands are small. Can I make them larger?