These little cutouts from paintings that didn't quite work out or from thumbnails are going in an inspiration box and I've photographed and printed them to put them in my studio book too. And when I'm done with them, I might use them for greeting cards!
The weather wasn't great and it was a bit of a distance to go, but I'm so glad I went to Stoneybatter to sketch! First, I bumped into Maya and her cousin at the Luas stop, then we found a real cool little Italian grocery and café. And we spent our afternoon there, drinking tea, eating tiramisu and sketching away. Then other sketchers arrived, and then Marina and Jeroen got there, and it was hugs and chats and more sketching. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to spend an afternoon like this! Heaven! Plus Mooz, yes that's the name of the Italian place, had all their Christmas decorations up and it felt really festive!
I was struggling to find what to do next after my solo exhibition. It's finishing today, 26th November, by the way, so if you're reading this at 6am, it's still time to go to Walters in Dun Laoghaire and see it !
And then, I realised I have a project I need to be working on already, a collaborative exploration of the Beara peninsula through urban sketching (me), poetry (Cathy) and sound (Brendan). It's a longer-term project, but I will be working in a concertina sketchbook on location on the Beara peninsula. And I won't get that many opportunities to go there, so I want to be ready to hit the road when we're there. And I'm new to concertina sketchbooks, so I need to practise. And remember to bring clips, or the pages will unfold in the wind! I'm quite an intuitive sketcher. I don't like to plan when I sketch. But here, I will need to have an idea how I will connect the double-spreads, without applying a wash on all the pages before I start. Why don't I want to apply a wash in advance? That's too constraining for me. What if I apply a wash in the colour of the stones, but I decide I want to sketch the fields, or the sea, or the sky? It's generally one of those four things, or all of them, but the landscape can look so different depending on the light!
So I'm going to work from Google Maps for a bit, dropping random pins and hopefully I will find what I need, connecting the views to Cathy's words, and Brendan's sounds, which are resonating in my head as I work. And I'd better start practising drawing sheep!
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We sketched at Kilmainham Hospital, now IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art). It was cold, but the sun was shining, so I picked the sunniest spot, with a nice bench, because I'm not quite able yet to sit on my tiny fold-up stool. Got myself a matcha latte and set to work. When the sun went behind a chimney, it got cold, but it warmed up again after a few minutes. When I say cold, not that cold. It's the wind that makes it feel that way. I'm not wearing my warmest coat yet. I'm keeping it for December/January.
I couldn't resist the cute food truck! Much more interesting to me than all the arches. Although I did hint at them. Mind you, the food truck is designed to give you the idea of choice and independent coffeeshops. But I believe this is run by the same people who run the café downstairs, which is quite nice nowadays.
Was lucky then when Maggy offered me a lift home! It's wonderful to be surrounded by kind people!
Experimenting with colours in Neocolor II (watersoluble). I do love the bright colours! Now I need to figure out how to prevent them from smudging on the facing page in my sketchbooks. Maybe if I use them quite wet, they will be ok? I don't want to have to start spraying fixative over my sketchbooks. Maybe I'll just use some wax paper between the pages?
I don't know what possessed me to try this really wet scene in watercolour and ink in my studio book, with scratching and all! The amazing thing is that the paper survived, with some buckling and lifting, but it was amazing to see how it didn't disintegrate! And I have no idea what the paper is. It was a regifted gift, and there is no obvious branding.
I'm still not sure where I'm going next in my art journey, but one thing is for sure, I'm not short of ideas. Almost too many. So a good thing to do when that happens, is lots of thumbnails in watercolour (and in some of these, ink, brushpen and acrylic markers). They will be here when I'm ready to paint again!
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| Sorry, the photo is a bit dull |
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I've started a playbook, studio book, studio journal. Whatever you want to name it. A place to throw ideas in and come back to when I am in need of inspiration. And by the way, studio is a big name. Someone asked me yesterday if I had a studio. I have a boxroom, and it's currently so crowded and messy that you could not swing a cat. Which is probably an expression one is not supposed to use any more. But don't worry, our cat is very well looked after. I might have a few scratches and the occasional bite, but he is treated like a king.
Ok, back to the studio book. I've always taken notes, and gathered ideas, but not in a systematic way. Probably one of the reasons why my room is in such a mess. I've recently joined Louise Fletcher's Art Tribe group. It's an annual subscription, and it's good value for all you get out of it, I think. I'm not really into the Facebook group element at this stage yet. I don't think I have the energy to spend on all these other artists' journeys. I have plenty of artistic communities as it is. My cup is full with all the love and support from my art friends around the world. But there are lots of masterclasses available and I am planning to dip into these as I feel the need. And it's perfect for when I'm icing my ankle and can do nothing else! And I found the videos on studio books really interesting. I immediately wanted to create one of my own.
So, if I have a book, then I don't need to put things here on my blog, right? Wrong!! Of course, I will feel the need to document the documenting. Plus if there is ever a fire, I don't want to lose it all. And when I'm gone to dust, this blog will remain, not forever, but for a while. And that feels good
I'm not going to share everything, though, so here is a little video to give you a taste. And by the way, the colour above is not Aureolin yellow, it was New Gamboge, or Hansa Yellow Deep!
Ooh, I do love these puffy clouds done with gouache. I had painted right to the top of my masking fluid exercise, so I had to create another landscape first. Really enjoyed this method. I think I'm converted to gouache for skies!
Tried some sunsets! I need to watch those videos again. But I can safely say that I'm addicted to yellow ink as a base for sunsets!!
Loving these sessions with Suhita Shirodkar - all you have to do is become a paid subscriber on her Substack and you'll be invited to these sessions once a month where we sketch and chat. The idea is to complete a sketch in half an hour max, as you would if you're urban sketching. As I have got slower with my on-location sketching, I find these sessions really useful, and fun.
The location for these doors is somewhere in Morocco.
A good central location made it easy for me to go sketching again. My energies are quite dispersed, but it felt wonderful to reconnect with the city and with my friends in Dublin Sketchers!
Not much, but better than nothing, which is what I felt like doing!
Happier with the colours and the effects. A little bit too much lifting with kitchen roll in the bottom part. I think it ends up looking like a wave crashing on rocks maybe?
Now that all the excitement about my exhibition is dying down, I will get back to a more focused art practise again. Soon. Hopefully. Started with this month's session of Street View World Tour, organised by Eleanor Doughty and Jenny Adam. This month's guest was Suhita Shirodkar, and of course we sketched busy streets, full of people!
And I've discovered I love to sketch chaos, and on this occasion didn't feel the need to make sense of it!
This one is in Manilla
