Saturday 16th April The subject for my sketchalong class is a well that my daughter stumbled upon in a field up the road from us in Kilcolgan. We get it all drawn, but have only got as far as the moss and reflections at the end of class, even though it’s gone over time by…
Saturday 9th April The day starts off really cold – in fact there is frost on the grass when I go outside to my studio. But it starts to look better and my youngest, Liv, and I head into Galway City. She wants to buy shoes and I don’t want to join her in her…
A book launch doesn’t come around every day. The best way to celebrate would be with my family, but my father does things his way…
Saturday 15th August I’m restless. I want to make the most of my free Saturday. It’s warm, but not so sunny. I want to go into town to sketch the Potter’s Market, which will be in Galway City for just one weekend. I hop in the car with my son Paddy (18) but have not…
Tuesday 21st July I dropped my children, Paddy (18) and Liv (16) to the sailing club to start their new jobs as sailing instructors. It was a grey day but I had been sketching in a 5km radius, or less, for many months, and wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The…
Friday 26th June “For every old sock, there’s an old shoe.” I stop by a French bakery on the outskirts of Galway City, wait in a socially-distant queue and buy all the pastries I can reasonably buy without looking like I haven’t eaten for a month. I am celebrating: twenty-one years ago, in a tiny…
Sunday 21st June There’s a place I have sketched many times. It is called Killeenaran Quay. It has colourful boats and a wall with a bridge, and sea and seaweed, and loads of sky that is usually a celestial canvas of something dramatic and beautiful. When I arrived last Sunday I dropped down over the…
Thursday 18th June Paddy (18) wants to visit Galway City. He hasn’t been in town for three months, whereas we used to go once every couple of weeks. “I just want to go in and get a quiche from the Gourmet Tart Company,” he says in such a wistful voice that I cannot refuse, and…
Monday 15th June It is hot today. We have been spoiled with amazing weather lately, but then some wretched wind came in from the Arctic and we got cold again. Now the good weather has returned. I suggest to Liv (15) that we head off for a snorkel. She’s game, so just after lunch we…
It’s elderflower season in Galway. years ago I used to make elderflower cordial, but I have passed the baton on to my younger daughter Olivia (15), who is as domestically-goddess as I ever was, with the great benefit that she is extremely tidy and organised too, something I never managed. But she loves all the…