Last January I announced two urban sketching workshops for the month of August. Each would last two and a half days and would take place in Galway City. The last one I had run was late in 2019, which is a big gap – this one would be just short of three years later. Since…
A Dream Sketching Holiday Are you dreaming of your next sketching trip? Cast your mind to nine days in Morocco: the desert, the food, the architecture, the oases, the date palms, the people. In partnership with Morocco Ecoway, I am delighted to announce a wonderful trip, planned for September 2021. My teaching style is to…
When it comes to urban sketching, there is a world of tips and techniques to make your experience easier and better. From choosing handy tools to clever ways to paint: from sneaky ways to master perspective to knowing when to use the right ink for the right pen, there are myriad things an experienced instructor…
I have just returned from the beautiful medieval city of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, where I attended the fabulous Compostela Ilustrada sketching event. (Warning: this may be an envy-inducing post, unless you cannot abide rain, in which case you will be very glad indeed that you did not attend.) The old part of…
The beautiful city of Haarlem in the Netherlands could have been designed with urban sketching in mind. Join me for a watercolour workshop there 26th-28th June 2020!
I think of people driving through my village Ballinderreen on their way somewhere. Ballinderreen is not usually the destination, being a “blink and you’ll miss it” village, with little more than a crossroads, a pub, a fuel station and a small shop…on the outside. But take a left at the crossroads and you will come…
(Update: this workshop is now fully booked. Workshops planned for Haarlem, Netherlands, June 2020; Kent, UK, September 2020; Turin, Italy, October 2020. Dates to be confirmed.) The end of the clement weather means the end of sketching. Rain stops play. Or does it? The amazing thing about urban sketching – as opposed to plein air…
The 10th International USk Symposium has just wrapped up. It took place in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The 9th USk Symposium was held in Porto, Portugal, in July 2018. One of the organisers, Nelson Paciencia, stood up to say a few words about the experience during the introduction one morning. “The Symposium is not about…
I was in Porto, Portugal, last year when this year’s Urban Sketching Symposium location was announced. It would take place in Amsterdam. “You should consider staying in Haarlem,” said Anne Rose Oosterbaan, one of the many Dutch sketchers in Porto. “It’s very pretty, cheaper than Amsterdam – and only twenty minutes away by train.” That…
This August I would like to invite your child to join me in Ballinderreen, Co. Galway, for a very fun week of learning cartooning.