South Great George's Street

The Great Journey South begins. From its T-junction with Dame Street, South Great George's Street takes you more or less due South the whole way to Rathmines, via Aungier Street and Camden Street. There is so much to sketch on the way that it's a little overwhelming. And the area is changing of course. Some of it, I was too late to catch the original beauty (like Pim's department store, now replaced by the ugliest building, but some of our sketchers remember it well). But I'll document, in my own way, the life of Dublin as it is now.

So rather than starting at the very bottom of George's Street, I went to Bear Mrkt, where they do a lovely matcha latte and the staff is super friendly. It was Louise's birthday and it was lovely to chat with her as I was getting settled into my sketching mode. I had to twist to sketch Dame Lane, with another building site hidden by hoarding. Our city is changing too quickly.

We were lucky with the weather, and I stood outside for the next few sketches. This one is of the moment, and an opportunity to dedicate my sketches to all my Ukrainian friends, Lana, Nadia, Ksenya, Kateryna, Khrystyna and Nina's parents of course, and everyone in Ukraine.

I've been to Acapulco. It was a long time ago. I've never been inside the restaurant, though. But I like its window.

Another sketch done outside, looking back towards the t-junction with Dame street. On the left, you get a glimpse of the beautiful art deco building that used to house Burtons. Now it's just a Spar downstairs, which provided us with a good spot for a bite to eat and some more sketching. I didn't sketch The George, the famous gay club, but I did celebrate its presence with a little pride rainbow. 

By the way, this is a busy street and there's a never-ending stream of busses going up and down. 

The next sketch was done from inside Spar, looking back at the "Why go Bald" sign and the jumble of buildings with chimneys on Dame Lane

I didn't have much time left, but enough for a quick portrait of Emily from Hong Kong and Monica. Plus two random builders. And shelves full of plastic bottles. We really need to address our plastic problem. Micro-plastics have now been found in human blood (not 100% sure if it's in the blood or in our organs!). We're not only destroying our planet, we're also destroying everything living on it.

And sometimes, I do remember to take some on-location shots!