Backgarden

More experimentation while sitting in the backgarden on that sunny afternoon. We don't have a fancy garden, so apart from the weeds, the most interesting thing is the negative shape of the side of our house versus the neighbour's house. And the light and shade of course. Can't waste a sunny day and not capture the shadows!

Garlic

It's raining out of the heavens right now. To the point where it's hard to remember that just a week ago, we had a heat wave! It was glorious!

I sat in the back garden on a lazy Saturday afternoon, and sketched our garlic. Well, I had nothing to do with the growing or the cooking, so it's Brendan's garlic really.

I just played with paints, a pencil to drag some of the juicy paint around. And also did a version with watersoluble graphite. It was so relaxing!

Forestry

This time, I moved straight from a postcard-sized thumbnail to half sheet. And I wasn't focused enough. I definitely need to do more composition exercises and work on my calligraphic strokes, but I'm still happy I took that big step in one jump. The more I do this, the better it will get!

And I quite like this crop!

Quiet

 Abstract pieces for days when I can't paint. Always exploring.

The Bridges of Dublin City - part 2

This is another one where the sketches appear in the opposite order of actually drawing them. I'm going to have to go back to Google Maps to figure out which bridge is which! 

This one doesn't look like much, but I feel it captured the moment quite well, when a mum, child and dad went by on their canoe, in perfect harmony (well, maybe not quite as synchronised as I made it out to be!)

It was a nice day. Lots of people on the boardwalk. There was no tourists yet, but I believe that now that the travel restrictions have been relaxed (from 19th of July), town is full of tourists again!

Millenium Bridge - a pedestrian bridge built for, wait for it, the Millenium! It's not much to look at, but offers a great view of pedestrians, as its construction is quite light.

Probably a covered river that flows into the Liffey. Yes, it is! Good old Wikipedia! It's the River Poddle! Read Wikipedia to find out how Dublin got its name, which is actually Blackpool!!

Deliveroo cyclists on Grattan Bridge taking a break before the lunchtime rush!

People on Grattan Bridge, looking back towards the Four Courts. We were lucky to get seats on Grattan Bridge. Lots to sketch from it. On previous occasions, I've sketched the Sunlight building, but I didn't have enough time to do it justice on this occasion!

Grattan Bridge seen from Ormond Quay, with the Heineken building in the background. It used to be the Harp building! Plus ça change!

From Inns Quay looking across the river. Not sure what the building with the dome is. I think the dome is actually behind the building and it might be the Church of the Immaculate Conception. So much to explore still in this city that I know so well. The more I sketch it, the more I discover!

River Bank, Merchants Quay Ireland, who provide services to the homeless and addicts,  I think. And to the left of it, a beautiful church. At this stage, I'm not sure which one it is. There seems to be a number of religious buildings all nestled together in that area. 

This little guy started to walk on my sketchbook, so I had to sketch it before persuading it to move back onto the ballustrade!

We'll call this one my warm-up sketch. The O'Donovan Rossa Bridge. The tide was going out still and I was interested in the mud sticking out of the water!

MHMP 1 and 2

Some of these colours I use a lot, some I don't. Time to put them to the test and see how they work together.

The other side

What do I do when I'm not happy with a painting? I use the other side to practise! Trees on half sheet watercolour paper. Definitely like these better!

Will I have another go? Probably, but not just yet!

Monkstown in the rain

It's hard to believe this was only a couple of weeks ago. Ireland is currently experiencing a heat wave. And that day in Monkstown felt like winter - a steady drizzle that turned to heavy rain. I was well wrapped up, but I should have worm my rain trousers. I got so cold I had to go to a café and have a hot brownie and a hot chocolate!!  But since our restaurants hadn't reopened indoors yet, we were sitting under a sun umbrella on the footpath. And the rain was going horizontal. The things we do for urban sketching!

I had managed to find shelter against the big church in the center of the village. Those big recessed doors proved really useful. Plus I was holding my umbrella. Some of us sat in their cars, some under big trees, some just got wet. 

But Monkstown is such a lovely village that I didn't want to miss it. I wasn't alone. Despite the weather, a good 15 of us showed up! A bit of rain and a gale can't stop an Irish urban sketcher!

This one is a case of "should have left it alone". I added some watercolour to it today and it's not half as interesting!

Our troupe of brave urban sketchers! I was still at the café enjoying my hot chocolate with a few pals, so I missed the group photo!

I'm getting better at remembering to take the urban sketcher photos!!

Black mix

An interesting mix I came across recently, in a livestream replay from Liz Steel's Edges course. Indanthrone blue and Van Dyck Brown. Love it! Not sure how I'll use it yet, though!

Feeling Alive

I'm sure it's not just me. You might think when you see all my paintings and experiments and sketches that I'm bounding with energy and dancing with a brush every day. Well, I'm not. While things are slowly returning to normal and there are highlights in my weeks that bring me great joy,  there's also an undertone of fatigue and anxiety. 

So I've come across this book called The Art of Aliveness, a creative return to what matters most (Thank you Áine Divine!) and it's inspiring me already to go back to play with art. Feeling more alive already! (Heavily inspired by Sketching Playlab of course!!)

Te Anau peaceful evening

Why do I stiffen when I move up to Half Sheet?

I think that asking the question leads me straight to the answer - because it feels like a "proper painting", because I'm using up precious material, because in my mind, I think of it on a wall. So the bottom line is that I lose the "play" element that's so important to me. Plus I'm just copying the previous, smaller, version where I solved all the problems on the fly, and there's an energy that comes with that - the living dangerously, taking risks.

So, while I'm not totally unhappy with this version of Te Anau evening, it feels stiffer, less playful. It's like those trees have become big menacing things rather than just a few light bold strokes of paint!

So what do I do? I paint more of course. I've only done 4 half sheets since the end of January. Compared to how many quarter sheets, thumbnails and urban sketches? There's my answer!

The bridges of Dublin City

A few of us in Dublin Sketchers are doing extra curricular activities, trying to make up for lost time when we couldn't meet - we have started to sketch the bridges of Dublin City. Apparently there are 18 bridges between Heuston Station and the sea. So Pat had this great idea to do a sketchwalk, stopping at each bridge for 20-30 minutes maximum. We knew we wouldn't be able to do them all in one day, and we weren't sure how it would go, but our small group managed to stay more or less together from bridge to bridge, sketching with an extra energy, knowing that we wouldn't have time enough to do a detailed sketch.

Isoilde had done her research and she was able to give us the name of every bridge and a little bit about their history, which added an extra dimension to the whole experience.

I'm showing you the sketches in the wrong order here, as we started at Heuston Station, but I don't feel like sorting the images again, so bear with me.

This was my last sketch of the day. I think the bridge is called Father Mathew Bridge, but what interested me was the view of the big church on Thomas Street beside the NCAD, and the road that sweeps down behind it to the Liffey.

This is Louise, from our group of intrepid sketchers. Her hair was looking particularly lovely that morning. I didn't do it justice!

A beautiful stone bridge, Liam Mellows Bridge, if I'm not mistaken. The fact that I'm working in reverse order isn't helping! I'm loving the views of the city that we're getting from this perspective, and the reflections of the arches in the river. It's a real shame that the city of Dublin turns its back to the Liffey, both on the North and South side, that the quays on the river are choked with traffic, and that some of the beautiful architecture of old has been replaced by ugly apartments and office blocks. I drew it from the James Joyce Bridge, beautiful in itself, but it seems that I like the views from the bridges, rather than the bridges themselves!

This was near Rory O'More Bridge. A beauty from Lancashire in blue-painted steel. But I decided to sketch the steps going to the river, and the graffiti on the wall instead

You can't walk by the Liffey and avoid the Guinness Brewery.  Sketching from the quays was a bit low to get a good view as there is a high wall around the perimeter of the industrial complex. If we had had more time, I would have gone up to Collins Barracks, on higher ground. PS: the orange thing in the bottom left is a bus!

Since I had a bit of time left at Sean Heuston Bridge and we skipped Frank Sherwin Bridge (a boring, practical bridge!), I turned back and sketched the court of criminal justice, an imposing modern structure behind a traditional Dublin street with pubs and shops.

Sketching a few young people busy looking at their phones to decide which way to go. Sean Heuston Bridge is used only for the Luas (tram) now. I should have thought to capture that. Next time!

Sean Heuston Bridge is only one arch, not quite as curved as what I represented here, but I was more interested in the reflections.

The start of the adventure - Sean Heuston Bridge, just beside Heuston Station - it's getting busy again, with people coming and going. And I am so glad the bathrooms are open to the public - Dublin has a serious lack of public toilets, and I don't want to have to buy food or a drink every time I need to go! And let's face it, my bladder is not as strong as it used to be after all these lockdowns and being at home and being able to go to the bathroom as often as I wanted!

The little park behind the bridge in my sketch is now home to the Anna Livia statue. "Anna Livia Plurabelle is the name of a character in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake who also embodies the river. In the monument's original location, the river was represented as a young woman sitting on a slope with water flowing past her. Dubliners nicknamed it the Floozie in the Jacuzzi" (Quote from Wikipedia)

The park is also home to a lot of homeless people, a quiet spot for a drink or two and whatever drugs they're on these days. One of the things that has struck me while sketching along the Liffey is that Dublin has a serious problem with street alcohol and drugs. Or maybe it's just that it's more noticeable without the tourists?

And a few photos from the day

Next time, I'll sketch from this side!

The Bridge Crew

The steps