I was to meet my eldest, Honor, in Galway City to give her money I owed her. We arranged to meet in McCambridge’s on Shop Street at 4pm. Her younger brother Paddy and I decided to go there early, have a pot of tea for two and a cake, and a sketch (me), while we…
DetailsGalway is one of those places where everyone celebrates how it’s a thriving, exciting 21st century city. Scratch the surface, though, and its true character is right there. I watched a busker today in Galway City. He’s a guy I’ve seen a million times. His pitch is opposite Eason’s bookshop; sometimes he’s on his own,…
DetailsYesterday members of Urban Sketchers Galway got together in Neachtain’s for an aul’ afternoon’s sketching. There were about eight of us in total, sitting in various nooks and crannies of the pub. Neachtain’s was one of my very favourite pubs when I was a student in Galway University. I’ll even say it was my favourite.…
DetailsI’ve been a bit of a grinch of late. Christmas comes around and I get a bit sullen. There are lots of reasons for this, none of which is particularly unusual or original. It’s not fair on Liv, my youngest, though – she’s fourteen and loves getting into the spirit of things at this time…
DetailsEvery year around Christmas, the visual art group of which I am a member holds a fun exhibition. Each member can submit up to five pieces of art, along three guidelines: they can be no bigger than a postcard, they must not be signed (the buyer discovers the artist after purchase) and they must be…
DetailsSketching outdoors in Galway in December isn’t easy. It’s cold and damp. So I decided to sketch some pub interiors and went into Galway City today, but to my amazement it was warm enough to sit outside. I saw the beautiful exterior of Tigh Cóilí and thought it would make a perfect subject. I had…
DetailsCleaning your daughter’s bedroom is hard on the psyche. I did that today and I needed a restorative pint of beer afterwards, along with a nice relaxing sketch. My husband Marcel and I headed over to Moran’s on the Weir, which is directly across the river from us. It is an estuary rather than a…
DetailsI attended the second day of a workshop today, given by some students doing their Masters in Fine Art from the Burren College of Art. The first day took place in the hills of the Burren, and the second in the Courthouse, the beautiful premises of KAVA, which stands for Kinvara Area Visual Artists. The…
DetailsThis is my son Paddy, making bread one evening recently. We had just returned from the barbers, and my very quick watercolour sketch gives a pretty good idea of what his haircut looked like. Paddy knows I didn’t like it at the time, but so what – short hair grows back quickly so I wasn’t…
DetailsA few days ago my son Paddy came back from school, his eyes shining with excitement. His class had gone on a trip to NUIG where there was a science festival on, and his maths class went to a workshop presented by James Grimes, who travels the world with an original Enigma machine, one of…
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