Every 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…
DetailsThe nicest way to enjoy Christmas…by sketching! Look at this loveliness…!! One of the lovely sketchers from USk Galway arranged a sketch-out today. She had suggested sketching the Christmas Market, and so we met in Eyre Square, which is completely taken over by the annual market. It has the words Traditional Christmas Market written in…
DetailsI had to make a long drive yesterday evening. A friend of mine lost her mother two days ago, and it meant a lot to me to see her, and pay my respects. I drove to Killaloe, a small town in deepest Clare where the removal was to be held: it’s a two hour round…
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PREMIUM: Prints of Japanese Kabuki actors are masterpieces of colour and line and are a great way to practice watercolour techniques. In this article I show you how to paint your own.
DetailsHere is a sketch of my girl Olivia, or Liv, which I did on Sunday morning. The sun was streaming in through the window and she was all lit up. She was patient for about ten minutes, so I had to be very fast. I was pleased with the sketch but then my cough was…
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