A Beautiful Assignment
The king and queen of Sweden visited Galway’s Marine Institute to see work from the Bluefish project. I was invited to lunch…
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Water & Waves In Watercolour…
It’s May and it’s paradise here in Galway. It’s hard to find a place that is so totally unspoiled this close to action, but we manage it in this hidden part of Galway. So I don’t need much persuading to head down to the shore with my sketching stuff and an excited white fluffy terrier.…
DetailsChannelling Hogarth
Last week I went to the south of Portugal. I was teaching a six-day watercolour sketching workshop: the idea was to share techniques that would demystify some of the more useful, and prettier, effects possible with paint when you’re out sketching in the big wide world. I was anxious leaving, and it’s my experience that…
DetailsAin’t Nothing But A Husky Digger
Last night was Taekwon-Do night in Gort for my youngest. I usually spend the evening in a combination of aimless driving and aimless wandering the aisles in Lidl or Aldi. This time my aimless driving was to find a nice place for Reuben the terrier to have a run off the lead. That done, there…
DetailsMy Dad Says I’m A Hagfish
Until yesterday, I couldn’t have sketched my dobok, the white uniform you wear when kicking around in a taekwon-do session. But I hurt my hamstring doing a flying high kick just over a week ago and after consulting Dr Google at length I self-diagnosed a Grade 2 tear that would take six weeks to heal.…
DetailsHelp – I’ve Been Paintjacked!
Before we left the house to go to town this morning, I picked up my orange bag that I carry all my sketching stuff in. “Are you bringing that?” asked my husband Marcel, as he does every time we go out together. He knows it means that sketching is a possibility. “Yes,” I said. “But…
DetailsTen Thousand Hours (Some Of Them In Barbershops)
I was stuck indoors today: I have a chest infection and a broken, well, bum (see yesterday’s post about a flying high kick in Taekwon-Do that went wrong). Sometimes you have a workload such that you can’t get sick until it’s all done: that was the case with me recently. My family, with whom I…
DetailsTaekwon-Do Part 2: Perseverance (When You’re Banjaxed)
It couldn’t last. Five classes in to my new favourite sport, Taekwon-Do, and I’m injured. What did I expect? I’m 51 years old and I’ve joined a martial arts class. Yesterday’s session was going swimmingly. Everyone was doing lots of aerobic and warm-up exercises, and as usual I was crashing out panting for breath long…
DetailsThe Journey Is Everything
At Taekwon-Do last night, the instructor took us though kicking moves. He explained the stance we should be taking and the part of the foot we needed to deliver maximum impact. We are beginners, so he found fault with one or other aspect of our moves. “You’re focusing on the destination,” he said. “Focus instead…
DetailsSilver Linings
Last week I realised I only had ONE tricolour in my collection of sketches for my upcoming book. One! I am a passionate patriot and I love my country. It was time to right the wrong! And so yesterday I went into Galway City to draw the flags that festoon Quay Street. It was a…
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