Kingfisher Project garden

Dublin Sketchers had the privilege to be allowed to sketch at the Kingfisher Project garden, by the Poddle in Kimmage. It's a little hidden gem at the end of a lane - it's not your typical allotment, it's a biodiversity project - and the bees love it. And I must have done something right in my sketch of the giant poppies - bees kept landing on my sketch! I used many different tools - Inktense pencils, watercolour, Neocolor II, and magic pencil.

So grateful to the organisers for creating this wonderful space. We need more of this in our city!

 

Land Sea Land

Work in progress? Or ready for the bin? I've been working with much smoother and thinner paper lately, so this Arches Cold Press in 640gsm is a struggle. Added some gouache. Made it worse. Took forever to dry and it looks like nothing. Maybe I'll flush it with water and start again?

Working in ink to explore those shapes

Played with ink on practise paper for calligraphy, which is really thin! My idea was to explore some of those circular shapes I see in the mountains and the coast on the peninsulas in the West (near Beara Bowl, Caha Mountains, across the bay from Cill Rialaig, e.g.). I got quite carried away with inks, but ended up with lots of pages of interesting marks and colours, which I might glue onto some thicker paper to see what happens. I'm just curious to see how it will behave. I have no idea if this particular paper is acid-free -it's Daiso's calligraphy practise paper. I had stared with Sumi ink, then moved onto Pilot colour inks. Because the paper is so light, the result is really transparent, and I loved looking at it against the window. It was like a stained glass window!

You can see I had fun. I even kept some of the paper I had set down to protect my desk from stains!

Rhythm of Summer - leaning towards winter now

I added more watercolour layers and soft pastel to this one. Not what I had originally intended, but I like where it is now. This abstract landscape in mixed media was inspired by looking over the bay from Cill Rialaig during my residency last year. I love dreamy soft watercolour, but I also love intense mark making!

Other headland shapes in ink

A little digression from watercolour.  I used a Pilot Parallel Pen to explore the textures of rocks on headlands in the middle ground, using photos I took in various locations on the West Coast. Worked on scraps of watercolour paper. I wonder if my camera lens smudgy? The pictures look sharp on the left but soft on the right-hand side.

Headland shape in watercolour

Experimentation with some of the shapes I see in the landscape when I look across the bay from Cill Rialaig. Similar shapes in Beara, actually. I want to figure out how to express those shapes in the simplest way possible, but still showing their volume through mark making and colour. I think this is going to take me a while. Using my new Korean watercolour tubes (in Sepia, Paynes Grey, light blue and Ochre) on thin cartridge paper (A2 size). Lots of buckling.

Sea colours

Someone very kind gave me a dozen tubes of Korean watercolours. Great excuse for play and experimentation! I added a bit of white gouache to one of them, and then an extra bit of pure white. Love how that created a wave shadow!

And yes, this is still on the theme of my residency in Cill Rialaig last year. The Atlantic Ocean was such a presence, on good days, and stormy days even more so.

Exploring the same idea, but in different colours

I had intended to do something similar to the pink and sienna one but using more blue. It went in a different direction. But I did start with a light layer, as intended, so that's something. I kept adding layers as I progressed. As you can see, the first layer had some oil pastel in it, but it almost disappears under the layers of watercolour. I think the paper was Hahnemuhle Cornwall, which is perfect for dreamy effects and pigment blending. I used a mix of granulating and plain pigments, and scratched into the surface. Like most of this series, this abstract landscape was inspired by my residency in Cill Rialaig last year.

Note to self. I want to explore those shapes and marks in various media on light paper, which I could then glue to the paper and paint over. Lots of ideas emerging. 

Pencils4Tea 28 May 2026

In the spirit of Direct Watercolour month, I used mostly watercolour for this Pencils4Tea session. With a graphite pencil, and a Stabilo Woody crayon (mostly for lips) when I had time. I added a little Ecoline marker in warm grey and pink on some afterwards. I had to switch between 2 books to let the watercolour dry, so some of the pages are Seawhite of Brighton cartridge paper, others are Stillman & Birn. PS: I know the playlist was chosen by a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old, but I loved it!!