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!