Botanic Gardens in September

Dublin Sketchers hadn't been in the Botanic Gardens all summer, or maybe I wasn't around? Anyways, I was delighted when it was picked as the location for the first Sunday in September. I prepared my pages with green splashes and pink splashes in the spirit of the theme set for the month by Liz Steel on her Patreon. I was a bit worried about the pink, given that I work mostly in watercolour, but it all worked out. It was a gorgeous day, warm, but no sunshine. Everybody had a great time. Head to www.dublinsketchers.com to see everyone's sketches.

Soft pastels are hard to resist

I'm giving myself permission to play, to explore, without a precise goal in sight. I'm interested in softer shapes, circles, more neutral colours. No idea where that will lead. Or how long I will be able to resist the urge to paint with more intention. But Unison soft pastels were the perfect tool for this, added on top of some of the circles from my previous session.

 

Exploring the softer side of circles

I'm resisting the temptation to "paint a painting". I want to explore how to do those circles in watercolour. Not as easy as in ink. I played with a variety of papers, from rough to very smooth print paper and heavy-weight cartridge paper. Oh and there was a blob too. But an interesting blob. Some of these are A2 (roughly half sheet), some a bit smaller. Used Cretacolour watersoluble pencil, my new Lyra chunky pencil, and also some Inktense in one of the pieces

 

Playing with Lyra watersoluble chunky graphite pencils

The only art I did from Monday to Thursday in first week in September! 

Around St Stephen's Green shopping centre

I'm probably one of the few people that doesn't particularly care whether the Stephen's Green shopping centre stays or goes. It's a New Orleans style in the middle of Dublin. I never really liked it. That said, it will be a shame when it's replaced by a bland office building. What I will miss the most is the access to the top car park, with gorgeous views of the city. So I took the opportunity to sketch the view one more time before it disappears. And when I was done with the view that I wanted to capture, I went down to street level and did what I love even more - sketch people while standing on the street. The hungry customers queuing at Bambino's (a place where you can buy slices of pizzas) were easy pickings. The queue actually extended to the end of the street. Everyone tells me the pizza is delicious, but I don't understand why anyone would want to eat pizza while standing on a narrow busy street. Call me old-fashioned! And yes, when I'm walking through the area, I find it annoying that there's all these people standing on the narrow footpath, queuing and eating pizza!

 

Crop circles

One of my ink experiments had Mickey Mouse ears, so I cropped it. Found 4 interesting compositions in it. Always worth working on A2 paper so there's more of a chance of finding things that catch my eye.

Her embrace - ink vs watercolour

Played with ink to explore what came out of the Seeing More Clearly mini-workshop. I do love Pilot's Ina Ho colour, which they don't make anymore and they have nothing that comes close to its colour and range of values and variations as you dilute it. Worked on A2 heavy cartridge paper, with lots of water. When I tried a similar approach in watercolour, I realised that the water was sinking into the paper a lot more, with a result that the paper got damaged when I tried to make marks with a stick. It seems that the ink pulls the water up to the surface more. It's a shame that fountain pen ink in general is not lightfast. Though I have never done a test. I really want to get some similar effects in watercolour! I did get some nice effects with a deep yellow, Bloodstone Genuine and Grey of Grey. Am I going down another rabbit hole? I do jump around, but I'm genuinely interested in where this will go. So it's worth setting other things aside for a little bit in order to play with this idea.

Seeing More clearly

Have thoroughly enjoyed Sally-Ann Ashley's prelude to this year's Creative Shift. Called Seeing More Clearly, it was a mini exploration of what we notice and why and how we can bring that into our art practice. I have signed up for this year's Creative Shift, as I feel I need to regain some structure in my art process. But even if I hadn't, I would have enough with this mini-course to keep me going for a long time!

Wolfe Tone Square

You know summer is over when you're sketching outdoors and you have to grab your sketchbook and gear in a hurry when it starts raining out of nowhere! We were on Wolfe Tone square, always an interesting location, looking towards the dome at Penneys. Thankfully, I had done my ink sketch by the time the rain came - I would have liked to add more detail on the wall in the middle but I didn't have time, plus it's a pretty bland wall anyway. We took shelter in the Church pub, where we had the opposite view of the square, which I ignored completely, as the people hanging out under the tree were much more interesting. I finished that sketch on location. And when I got home, I added colour to the one with the dome. And I got to practise drawing a bicycle, as the chap was standing there chatting to someone for ages, with one leg on the ground and the other leg on the pedal.

Idea vs technique

Sometimes, I go, duh, why did I not realise this earlier? I'm looking at a landscape that has very definite shapes and I'm thinking of it as an abstract, but it still has definite shapes. So why am I trying to paint it with wild watercolour techniques, ie lots of water and sloshing around on really smooth paper? It makes no sense. Does it? And how do I make it make sense? I don't want to go down the gouache, gesso or soft pastel route (although I have to admit I have bought some more soft pastels!). So where do I go from here? Am I thinking too much? 

Sometimes the journey takes a turn

Can't say if it's a wrong turn, But I mixed the previous image with that thumbnail, added dark watercolour as a foreground and middle ground. Then lots of soft pastel. and some more watercolour on top.  It looks better in photo than reality.  But it's too much of a landscape for my liking. The 2 images were never meant to come together. Is it a wrong turn or a cul-de-sac? Time to step back, I think. 

 

Two paths meet

The shapes in one of the photos I had put in my Seeing More Clearly concertina book were calling out to me. And also the realisation that I want to introduce the actual shapes from the landscape into my more abstract paintings. I'm not sure why (yet), but it's important to me to recreate those roads and mountains, while at the same time hiding their exact locations. It's like they are my own personal haven. I want to share their beauty with the world. But I also want to keep them secret! So I have started with a thumbnail. An actual small-sized thumbnail. Not sure yet how I will merge this with my loose wild watercolour application. But that's another day's work.

Mind-mapping - prelude

Day 2 of Seeing More Clearly. My favourite bit. Mind-mapping. I'm already discovering so much with this. Years of creative adventures are opening up in front of my eyes. I want to live to 100 and create every single day until the day I die!