Here in these troubled fields

Moving straight to half sheet. Because I need to make that jump straight away, or I start fussing. With my new White Nights watercolours. There's still a bit of getting to know them. But they are intense and creamy! I need to explore them more in their juicy and watery states! So I'm not as relaxed with them as I would normally be.

Composition and colours

I'm in full exploration mode. I was reading a quote from the Learn To Paint Podcast.  Full disclosure, I haven't actually listened to any of the podcasts. I'm not really a podcast person. My brain can't listen with attention and do something else at the same time. Even when I'm walking or sitting by the pool (I don't even remember when I last did that!), I don't listen to music. I like to hear everything that's going on around me. 

But the quote was interesting. I found it on Instagram. It was an interview with mixed media artist Laura Horn and it says "New can be very exciting. New can also create a lot of variables that then need to be solved. Maybe pursuing the new is what you need to be excited about your art. But if it's bringing anxiety or frustration in your learning, know that it's absolutely OK to slow down and cozy in one particular area. It's OK to explore the same themes over and over and over again."

So I felt good about my explorations of the same themes. It's good to be reminded I don't need to do something new all the time! That exploring the same image even can lead to lots of fun and interesting results!

Here are some of the things you'll find in my (non-urban-sketching) sketchbooks. The urban-sketching sketchbooks are something else entirely. Some day, I will find a way to connect the two!

The Bridges of Dublin City - South Quays 1

Here we go again, I hear you say!

So we loved sketching the bridges of Dublin City so much that we decided to start again! From the South quays this time, offering a completely different perspective, and starting at the last bridge!

And this time, I made the effort to place the bridges in order!

The East Link Bridge. I was lucky to see (and sketch!) it lift twice in the time I was there. Never mind that I had already drawn a truck on the lifting section! It was very exciting!

Then I decided to sketch the Point Theatre (now called 3 Arena) and the strange new block behind it with the blue exo-skeleton. A mix of old and new. Not sure it works, but it's better than razing the old to the ground.

We thought we had picked a quiet spot, but I turned around and there was a fashion shoot in progress. The models must have been frozen in their gym gear, but I was more interested in sketching the photographer, who was very active!

And when I was done with that, I realised that there was lots of little sailing boats on the Liffey, right behind where the models were standing. Last summer camp before kids go back to school!

I then walked towards the Samuel Beckett bridge. A few of the other sketchers spotted things like the dome of the Customs House, and the three faces of the main arch of the bridge, catching light differently. So I incorporated those elements in my sketch.

The Seán O'Casey pedestrian bridge, with Liberty Hall, the spire and the Customs House on the right. You can also see a glimpse of the Loopline bridge in the background, and the modern glass building that encases a church on Abbey Street. I don't know much about it, but found this article. And to the left, Gerard's café. I remember getting a lovely chocolate twist there!

A closer view of the Seán O'Casey bridge, all out of proportions, with the CHQ building in the background.

And here are my urban sketcher photos.

Pat & Louise took photos of me! Yes, woolly hat and mittens in August. There's a cold breeze by the river!

Dundrum Village

I didn't have far to go for these sketches. Louise, who is organising locations for the month of August, chose Dundrum Village, just 10 minutes' walk from our house, so that was handy!

August isn't the easiest month for sketching in Ireland. Our summer is basically over, but we still hope for dry days and decent temperatures. Well, on this occasion, I was glad of my warm jacket, woolly hat and mittens (see photo below taken by Rita from Budapest who joined us on that day - the first of our international sketchers since the pandemic began! It was so wonderful to chat with her!)

There is an old church and graveyard at the opposite side of Dundrum to all the shopping. It's called St Nahi's. I didn't know that until quite recently. And apparently, some excavations have found a remaining wall from the 6th Century!

All of this in contrast to the very modern Luas Bridge!  

If you're looking for a moment of peace, I highly recommend this little oasis!

But it did get cold up on that hill, so when I was done with that first sketch, I headed down to the main street, got an outdoor table at the Essence café, with a lovely matcha latte. And I sketched the beautiful cottages beside the semi-modern credit union building. All under a bright red umbrella to pretend that the sun was shining. With the traffic reduction measures in place, the extension of the footpaths and cycle paths, Dundrum village has become much nicer than it used to be. Hopefully it will remain so when the pandemic is over.

This was my first time taking my White Night watercolours in the field so to speak, and they were a joy to use, highly pigmented and smooth. Will be taking them again next time! They are available from Crafty Studio, a small Irish business! I was lucky to win a gorgeous palette with 24 colours in their Instagram giveaway a few weeks ago. They deserve a shout-out, don't you think?

We went for a coffee after sketching and I couldn't resist Chris and Louise!

Rita took a few photos of us all!

Hard and soft edges

I did another version in a slightly smaller format, quarter sheet. I managed to keep some edges soft. The overall effect is still too blocky and stiff for my liking, but it's going in the right direction! I do need those rocks at the front to stay sharp and in strong contrast with the scene down the valley and towards the sea. So I'm not sure what I need to do. Maybe leave it alone! 

And a few doodles when I got frustrated with it! I need to do more of this type of play, trying out different tools like markers and watercolour pencils, sketching everyday objects, doing little people silhouettes, throwing it all on the page! Even a bit of collage!

Maybe not so bad?

So then I moved straight to half sheet. And a completely different feeling from what I had experimented with. But the rocks are the main focus, so I had to have hard edges!

I'm influenced by artists I admire in watercolours, like Uma Kelkar and Tom Hoffmann, I am also slowly watching Liz Steel's livestreams for the 2021 runthrough of her Edges course. And while I've clearly forgotten about softer edges in the distance, you can see how I'm playing with values and colours to separate the foreground, middle ground and background. 

And I'm really proud of myself for not messing up my slivers of light value on the rock edges. This is something I've been thinking about for months, but often forgetting while painting!

Still, it feels like I painted with my head rather than my heart! Will have another go!

The Bridges of Dublin City - Part 4

 We did it! We got to our 18th bridge!

And I know it is messy, but let me start at the end again!

So this is what we call the East Link Bridge. I found out yesterday that it's also called the Tom Clarke bridge. It's a tolled drawbridge. But apparently Dublin Port Authority, who operate this bridge, don't like to lift it too often. It probably causes too much disruption to traffic. And since cars and lorries have paid a toll to get on this bridge, they expect not to have to wait too long to actually cross it! I was recently lucky to be on a boat on the Liffey, and it was fascinating to watch the bridge open for us!

This is not the best rendition of the Samuel Beckett Bridge. I was running out of time and it was raining again, as you can see with the little dots on the steel cables! This bridge is actually quite beautiful, looking like a harp, a national symbol for Ireland. It was designed by the famous architect Calatrava. I knew that if I tried to capture its full shape, I would fail miserably, so I stood quite close to it, at an angle. But holding an umbrella at the same time as standing and sketching didn't work for me this time!

Definitely one I will revisit!

A pedestrian bridge, the Seán O'Casey Bridge (all our bridges seem to be named after writers or freedom-fighters!). I love the bounce you feel when you walk over it. It's a lovely design. It is also a bridge that can swing open to let boats up the river, but I laughed when I read the Wikipedia entry that said that the remote control to operate it was lost in 2009 and it couldn't open until 2014 when the control was re-programmed!!

Here I was standing on the Talbot Memorial Bridge. We call it the Matt Talbot bridge really. It's not particularly interesting-looking. But when you sketch something up close, it does become interesting. and you can see the other bridges from there too! The Famine statues are just down the road from there. And the tourists are back. I pointed a family towards the Epic emigration museum, where there was a queue!

I can't remember the name of this beautiful church, tucked away beside all the modern buildings springing all around it.

Looking towards the matt Talbot Bridge, with the Samuel Beckett bridge, the Jeanie Johnston ship, the Capital buildings, the Poolbeg chimneys, and lots of cranes. Dublin in a nutshell! And heavy traffic too of course!

Under the Loopline bridge. Isn't it such a beauty!

Collage with Japanese paper

When nothing else works, collage and a black brush pen over watercolour, Japanese paper and gesso. I must do more of this! This is exciting!

Thinking about composition and colours for my next one!

The next painting I'm thinking of is a big sweeping view with rocks in the foreground. I needed to do some thumbnails and colour swatches to get into it.

And then some random doodles, just because I felt like it!

Back to rocks!

There are rocks in my next painting. So I have to go back to the drawing board (pardon the pun), as I find it really hard to render the volume of rocks!