
Before we left the house to go to town this morning, I picked up my orange bag that I carry all my sketching stuff in.
“Are you bringing that?” asked my husband Marcel, as he does every time we go out together. He knows it means that sketching is a possibility.
“Yes,” I said. “But I’m not sketching or anything. I’m not well and I would get cold.” (I’m still fighting the unpleasantness of a chest infection, and the pain of a torn hamstring.)
Soon, we were in Tigh Neachtain’s in Galway City, having a coffee. We had called in to drop some prints in, and we were about to leave when the lovely Guga behind the bar offered us a coffee. We accepted, and there was an open fire at my back…very cosy indeed. My hands reached for my orange bag…
“I’ll just do a quick sketch,” I said. “Look how nice everything is.”
Neachtain’s is indeed lovely: it’s painted a deep orange inside, and there are art posters on every surface. There are hatches and snugs, corners to turn and steps to climb up and down. It’s where I used to hang out in my Uni days and I still love it.
The sketch had a blank page on the left hand side, crying out for…a figure.
“Can I put you in?” I asked Marcel.
“If you must,” he said. He’s reluctant to be sketched at the best of times. If I’d been looking, though, I’d have seen a glint of inspiration flash in his eyes. “I’ve been paintjacked!” he said.
I had to listen to the usual grumbling.
“That doesn’t look like me. I look ancient. I have clearly aged a lot in three months. My nose is wrong. My hair is wrong. My everything is wrong.”
My answer is always the same, whoever I am sketching: yeah, yeah. Or, if I am actually bothered about what they think of their likeness, I say they look lovely. I usually say both, because that’s what I feel: yeah, yeah, you look lovely. Now keep still, and look the way you were looking a minute ago.
Urban Sketching To The Rescue

Twice a week, I go to Gort in south Galway and wait around for an hour and a half while my younger daughter does Taekwon-Do class. There is very little to do in Gort in the evening. I can go and spend money on bargains I don’t need in Lidl or Aldi; I can go and have a coffee I don’t want in the Lady Gregory Hotel; I can go and attract attention I haven’t sought in one of the many pubs, or I can read a book I can’t see in my car. Not a great choice. Sometimes I make a live sketch demo on Instagram of wherever I am. Now that IS fun. On the whole I like the enforced quiet time in Gort twice a week. But every time I drop Liv off to her class, I know I have a stretch ahead which can go well or badly.
The other evening I drove around and found a butcher’s shop I thought I would like to sketch. Just blue, red and white, like a flag. I sat in my tiny car and filmed as I sketched, not very adroitly, it must be said. Afterwards, I added the tasteless pictures of animals with their bodies divided up into meat cuts, partly because I am conflicted about eating meat at the best of times, and I haven’t come up with an answer, and partly because the shop looked a bit bare around the sides. I think I felt even more uncomfortable after drawing these little pics.
I was neither bored nor lonely that evening. Comments came in on my phone screen from my lovely friends and followers. Not for the first time, urban sketching, with a little help from Instagram, was my saviour.
And today was wonderful too: Marcel may have been paintjacked, but the “hostage” was freed unharmed…give or take a poor resemblance.
I see a happy profile! How can you not love it Marcel?
Great sketch Roisin💚
Hi Geri! He, along with others in my family, usually complain before the sketch, but are quite pleased afterwards. They should have faith in me by now! And thank you X
Love it, it absolute Neactain’s to a T
Thank you Yvonne! I had hoped it was…such a cosy pub!
Handsome paintjacked victim! Such a funny post…I enjoyed reading every word! Really loved the part where you took your sketch bag and had all types of excuses why you had no intention of painting LOL
Thank you Flora! I think it’s a bit pathetic the way I don’t just say “why do you think I’m bringing my bag? I’m sketching of course”! But I’m so glad you enjoyed it!