Out of my comfort zone

I love doing big landscapes, skies, sea, mountains. Buildings, it's not that I don't like them, more that I find them a struggle. Funny for an urban sketcher, I know. But there you go.

I got so much good advice to complete this one that I feel I will have to try again to do it justice. In a few days, when I'm recovered from this marathon! Tomorrow I'm picking up my fountain pen - probably need to flush the dried ink first though!

Thank you Marc and Uma for a wonderful month of direct watercolour. It's been the highlight of my year so far!

I want to go to Lakelands

In Dublin by the sea...

Or hide under a blanket? They don't all work out!

Learning and Playing

These are two small pieces I did from Uma Kelkar's online class - Juicy Watercolours.

Would you believe that this is actually my first time ever attending a live class on how to paint landscapes in watercolour! Learning so much from a most attentive teacher! She's got more online classes in August!

Life Drawing - Robin

When the original model that was booked didn't show up, we were lucky that Robin George agreed to step in at the last minute! What a star! And such fun to draw! And fair play to the 2bornot2bcollective for organising such amazing life drawing sessions. Such a positive and fun bunch of people!

Heading towards the finishing line

My hands are twitching for my beloved Sailor Fude!

But I am determined. Some might even say stubborn!

Today, I decided to be kind to myself and do 4 little paintings rather than a big one. And I might enter them as single entries, which would mean I'm done! Is that cheating? Surely not! 

I just roughly divided my quarter sheet into 4 rectangles with masking tape and decided to play with pigments. They are still landscapes, though!

Two I like, two not so much.

They are between 17x12cm and 15x11cm. And the one I cropped is about 3x11cm

I'm going to give them titles!

Baros

Clouds rolling in

Glimmer of light

Final Approach

Rain definitely coming

Well, I wanted more texture in the sky, didn't I? You might think that's a tornado coming!

Lesson learned? Lighter paper buckles, even 300gsm! And since I don't have the patience to stretch paper, I will need to play with thicker paper!

PS: more rain today, but I didn't get to the beach!

PPS: I managed to correct the cast just for sky, so this is closer to the actual colour

Rain coming - Shelly Banks

The tide was low, so we had decided to go to Shelly Banks for our dog's walkies this morning. We hadn't really checked the weather, though. We knew there would be "showers merging into longer spells of rain" at some point. We didn't think much about when "some point" would be. When we got to the car park, it looked ominous in the West, over the mountains, but I decided to venture out anyway, leaving my husband to listen to the radio in the car. Well, let me say that I just had enough time to take 5 quick photos. The horizon, and the city with it, was disappearing fast. In the end, I had to run back to the car, where I was met with a smug I-told-you-so! I don't care! That fast-moving weather is one of the things I love in Ireland. I could paint skies forever! Although I would like to try it again with a little more texture!

Painted on Saunders Waterford cold press, quarter sheet.

The cloud is not quite as purple as it shows on the photo. But it is a mix of Cobalt Blue and Moonglow, so it does have a touch of warmth in it.

Wine Strand

It's like I'm thinking too much. It feels like I've lost last week's rhythm! But never mind. It will come back.

This is Wine Strand, on the Dingle Peninsula, between Ballyferriter and Ballydavid. The picture I have has got quite a lot of light in it. But my memory of it is of a grey day, with the light trying to get through but failing. So maybe I achieved my intention after all!!

Play Lab

Had so much fun at Play Lab with Suhita Shirodkar and Paul Wang! I hope they'll keep them going into the summer!

Love on the Rocks

I have a tendency to repeat the same mistakes over and over - in my art life at least. So when I wasn't happy with my previous painting, I tried another 3 versions, and they were no better.

And then I watched the last session where Uma reviews Marc's paintings, and I got inspired, and I jumped on my Grey of Grey and covered two of the paintings with crazy mixes. Obviously, when Marc Taro Holmes uses Grey of Grey, he's at the peak of his game. I'm still in the doldrums! But it was so much fun to watch the paint mingle on the page!

UCD on a Sunday afternoon

I'm abandoning all effort at chronology. Writing is like travelling with a time machine! Unlike Odile, I can only do small time jumps. But they do make life interesting. Even if it's hard to keep track at times!

The theme for Urban Sketchers Dublin was to find a location near home that has a strong connection with the lockdown. For me, it could only be one place, UCD (University College Dublin). Just about 5km down the road, it's where we walked our dog every single day. Love it or hate it, it will always hold a special place in my heart, just for being there when we needed it the most!

PS: I can't wait for #directwatercolor month to be over so I can go back over that building with a fountain pen and add lines to clarify the different planes!!

Water under the bridge

Well, I've been trying to paint this view a good few times. I'm still not there. I need to observe rocks better, and not just that. Too many colours, too many shapes! Not enough connections. I'm still too literal! Hey, you win some, you lose some!

This is a spot on the wonderful walk to the Gap of Dunloe in County Kerry. I took this photo a few years ago, one of those special summers when the sun was shining non stop. And you know what, there is no better place in the world when that happens!

Value squares

Practise Practise

Inis Oírr - with or without music

I am taking part in a painting and music experiment. But today I painted outside of the parameters set for the study. So I had to paint the view again. Which do you think came first? And which is with and which without music?

I've been wanting to paint from this photo of the beach at Inis Oírr (Inisheer, one of the Aran Islands) since the day I took it, in February 2017. It feels like longer. It was early evening in February, we were on our way to the pub, and the sun was setting fast, but when you're on a small island, it feels like the light is bouncing from everywhere and even with heavy clouds, the sea and the land were luminous.

I painted this quite small, one eighth Imperial. I really want to try it bigger now. Lots of favourite colours: Cobalt Blue and Carbazole Violet, Cobalt Teal, Lavender, Green Apatite Genuine, and a touch of Moonglow, plus Monte Amiata Natural Sienna for the beach.

Life drawing - Luis Ortega

This is from last week I think. I was trying to do life drawing in direct watercolour, but reverted back to Artgraf tailor shapes when I got frustrated with it. 

Luis Ortega from Mexico, brought to us by the 2bornot2bcollective!