Lestrygonians

A fantastic sketchwalk with Dublin Sketchers a couple of weeks ago. On the theme of Olives, Oysters and Oranges for #Bloomsday2019! James, one of our sketchers and a James Joyce expert, read extracts and told us about the locations we were at and where they fitted into Ulysses. Entertaining and educative all at the same time. We even got to feed the seagulls (well, I didn't, I'm a bit clumsy and I would have ended up with a seagull sitting in my hand, probably).

I'm not great at sketchwalks - I need a little bit of time on my own to settle and decide how to approach a sketch, plus I normally sketch in a fairly large landscape sketchbook. So on this occasion, I used a smaller sketchbook, more practical, but it doesn't give me the same amount of space to play with the layout. Plus it was cold. That's plenty of excuses, isn't it!! So I only did one sketch on the sketchwalk per se. And three in Davy Byrnes where we all warmed up and chatted for an hour or so.

While I'm not strictly sticking to the brief in terms of references to food in Ulysses in my sketches per se, you will find that the text I choose in each instance has a connection. I am an urban sketcher after all, not a still life painter! And I'm a rebel. That's probably why I don't do commissions.

And by the way, when we were getting ready to leave, one of the waiters gave each one of us a lovely high quality photo from the first Bloomsday, with Kavanagh and his pals outside Davy Byrnes. Apparently the first Bloomsday ended up as a pissup - too many pubs on the way - and they never got beyond Duke Street!

'If you cram a turkey say on chestnutmeal it tastes like that. Eat pig like pig. But then why is it that saltwater fish are not salty? How is that?'

'His gaze passed over the glazed apples serried on her stand. Australians they must be this time of year.'

'Crumbs adhered to the tissue of his lips. '

'Eat drink and be merry.'