This 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…
DetailsThis is the Palace Cinema, where I went to see Call Me By Your Name yesterday with my pal Lorraine. It’s very tall and thin, rising up three floors and down two, so if you want to go anywhere you have to channel “medieval lady of the manor” and haul yourself up and down millions…
DetailsI started a new children’s art class today. Like yesterday’s new class, it’s one I haven’t taught for many months. This time it’s in the Gaelscoil in Oranmore, which is the Irish-language-only school that my kids went to. I had figured on taking about 12 children in total, and then I agreed to take an…
Details(Never) Always Work With Animals And Children Yesterday I saw some beautiful beech leaves that I wanted to paint. There was something so magical about them. The colours, the hues…I don’t know. I did try to go out and paint – I had been stuck in front of a screen all day – but God…
DetailsI met my fellow artists, USk Galway, today for a sketch-out under the archways of National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). We huddled together from the cold under stone arches and sketched the beautiful 19th-century courtyard, called the Quadrangle, or Quad for short. It was a trip down memory lane for me: I walked through…
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