Blog
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Clams and Mussels, Alive Alive Oh!
My brother Malachy paid us a visit. He bought clams and mussels from the guys down the road. They harvest them down at the shore...
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Last Day of Lockdown, Day 79
I am sewing a lot of pencil cases at the moment. They are gifts for the generous artists who contributed their work to my new...
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Still Locked Down, Day 73
It couldn’t last forever. The beautiful harmony we had enjoyed as a family for three whole months of being cooped up together cracked, and after...
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Still Loosely Locked Down – Day 72
Locked down, still? Yes. We can go no further than 5km from our homes, unless it’s for shopping or essential work. That hasn’t stopped much...
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Sunshine in Lockdown, Day 69
Thursday 28th May Summer seems to have arrived in Galway. Everything is green and lush and it’s much too hot for anyone in their right...
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Zoom: Join the Party!
Tuesday 26th May I emerge from my studio late this afternoon into a tranquil garden scene. The sun is still warm, even though it is...
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Life In A Pandemic, Day 67
Saturday 23rd May I work on Saturdays until quite late, too late to start cooking dinner. So my husband Marcel cooks on Saturday. I thought...
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Loosely Locked Down, Day 64
Monday 18th May At long last my face masks are available for sale. Forgive me, I know masks are a symbol of this awful time,...
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Loosely Locked Down (Day 62)
Saturday 16th May Today in my Zoom class I show some great students the benefits of a limited palette. I really enjoy spending time with...
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Loosely Locked Down: Day 60
I say “loosely” locked down, because we can travel 5km from our home now, and by next Monday certain shops will be open. I might...
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Living in Lockdown: Eugene Delacroix And Our Sketching Heritage
Every week, the Urban Sketching organisation hosts an hour of talks with some favourite sketchers from around the world. This Sunday gone was the turn...
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Lounging In Lockdown…Book Is Done (Day 55)
I am Lounging In Lockdown, because I handed in my latest book for publication the other day. Yes, I know I have mentioned this before...
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Living in Lockdown: Clown Family (Day 54)
Wednesday 6th May I give my zoom class to a group of engaged and dedicated students. It is a taster class and I have nearly...
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My Second-Ever Book! Urban Sketchers Handbook: “Drawing Expressive People”
I am exceedingly excited to tell you that my new book is available for pre-order from Amazon. It’s one of the next books in the...
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Living In Lockdown Day 52: Long, Long Ago…
Sunday 3rd May A hundred and fifteen years ago, the last person to live in Tyrone House packed up and left. Actually, that’s not quite...
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Living In Lockdown – Sketching At Home (Day 52)
Sunday 3rd May Lockdown trends I have done: sourdough (can’t open the jar anymore because the lid is now glued on with starter); baking (my...
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Living In Lockdown…Sketch With Me On Zoom!
Saturday 2nd May Plants Sketching your houseplants of not as hard as it might seem. I am going to show you how I did mine....
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Living In Lockdown – Onwards and Upwards
Saturday 25th April Paddy cooks dinner. Tonight he is doing oven fried chicken. We are experiencing a tumultuous time at home, and it is lovely...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 43
Friday 24th April Midday, coffee break No more Living In Lockdown blogs! I will go on posting sketches, because I love to sketch and there’s...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 42
Thursday 23rd April 4.00pm I haven’t given up on trying to capture dandelions in watercolour. The race is on, because light grey spheres of the...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 41
Wednesday 22nd April 12.30pm We all sit outside and have elevenses (time is meaningless these days). My husband Marcel and I and our son Paddy...
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Living in Lockdown, Day 40
Tuesday 22nd April 5.00pm This is Drumacoo Abbey, about a mile from my house. To get there you walk along a country road, past the...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 39
Monday 20th April 8.00am I’m up earlier than everyone in my house. I am an early bird. My husband Marcel reckons when I say this...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 38
Sunday 19th April 5.00pm I do a live talk with Urban Sketchers on Instagram Live. Rob Sketcherman is a charming and loquacious host. We talk...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 37
Saturday 18th April 5.00pm The apple trees outside are heavy with blossom. I know how fleeting it is, so I head out with Reuben the...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 36
Friday 17th April 4.00pm (BST) midnight (HKT), 8.00am (PDT) It’s late afternoon for me, midnight in Hong Kong and eight in the morning in Seattle....
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Living In Lockdown, Day 35
Thursday 16th April 8.00am I am always downstairs first in the morning. It’s just me and a quiet house, and my own privately indulgent “good...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 34
Wednesday 15th April 9.30am A scene from two angles: I am asked to send a photo of myself to the Urban Sketchers organisation to illustrate...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 33
Tuesday 14th April 1.00pm I walk around the block: door to door, it’s a couple of miles and definitely more than two kilometres from my...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 32
Easter Monday, 13th April 11.00am I feel obliged to paint the amaryllis blossom that has made its dramatic reappearance. That’s not the same as feeling...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 31
Easter Sunday, 12th April 9.00am Hot cross buns out of the oven. It’s the recipe I found on Twitter and I made them last night....
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Living In Lockdown, Day 30
Saturday 11th April 8.00am Liv (15) is up earlier than usual. “What are you doing up so early?” I ask. “You’re giving me a haircut,”...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 29
Good Friday 10th April 10.00am I receive a call from my sister-in-law in the UK, Monique. Our mutual sister-in-law has lost her brother to covid....
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Living In Lockdown, Day 28
Thursday 9th April 3.00pm I head into the shed to look for petrol so I can mow the lawn. There’s a little bird flitting about...
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Living In Lockdown, Day 27
Wednesday 8th April 8.00am There’s a plum tree in our garden. It has little white blossoms on it. In a few months it will be...
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Living in Lockdown, Day 26
Tuesday 7th April 8.00am I bring Paddy (18) a cup of tea in bed. This has happened every morning since the lockdown began, as he...
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Living in Lockdown, Day 25
Monday 6th April 10.00am I am rather overcome by the beech tree buds of yesterday’s sketch, and I feel the need to sketch some more....
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Living In Lockdown, Day 24
Sunday 5th April 3.00pm I spend a blissful hour in the garden sketching a beech tree. It is strong, with a powerful trunk and wood...
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Living in Lockdown, Day 23
Saturday 4th April 1.00pm The new Lockdown Blog is here! New name, new theme! I overhear my husband Marcel telling his mum Erika (91) that...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 22
Friday 3rd April 4pm Liv (15) comes to me in my studio with her embroidered piece of denim. We have a pact, that if she...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 21
Thursday 2nd April 5.49am Birdsong fills the air outside my window. It is passionate and comes right from little feathery hearts, and it is a...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 20
Wednesday 1st April The days run into each other. They are full of online news, sewing, cooking, baking, writing, walking, sketching…and, luckily, picking up a...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 19
Tuesday 31st March 8.00am I start the day the usual way: getting bread together so that by the time everyone is hungry it might actually...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 18
Monday 30th March 3.00pm I have put together a Lockdown Art Kit for my brother Mal. He is a very able sketcher (most people are...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 17
Sunday 30th March 2.00pm My daughter Liv (15) looks rather 19th-century and somewhat wan sitting in my rocking chair, and I sketch her as fast...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 16
Saturday 28th March Most of the Day I am organising, editing and sending images for my new book on drawing people to my publisher. My...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 15
Friday 27th March 10.00am Paddy (18) hangs the washing on the line. It’s whites, and consists of sheets, towels and a few socks and pants....
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 14
Thursday 26th March 3.00pm I am upstairs in my home, about to get ready to go out for a walk. Liv (15) and I coo...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 13
Wednesday 25th March 7.00am I’ve had a disturbing dream. I am looking out of the window into the back garden. It’s dark out. Before my...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 12
Tuesday 24th March All day I’m sewing in my studio. I cut and iron and pleat. I’m stitching away when Paddy (18) comes down to...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 11
Monday 23rd March 9.00am I’m supposed to be on my way into the Natural History Museum on Merrion Square in Dublin to sketch with a...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 10
Sunday 22nd March 8.30am It’s Mother’s Day in Ireland and I’m in bed, but I have to get up soon because I’m meeting my friend...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 9
Saturday 21st March 10.00am I’m up at nine, ready to broadcast the Instagram Live video that I promised to the kids I teach, and anyone...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 8
Friday 20th March 9.00am Liv (15) is up and ready. “I can’t wait to get out and do some gardening!” she says. I follow her...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 7
Thursday 19th March 10.30am I host a Zoom session with my husband Marcel, Paddy (18) and Liv (15). The idea is to find a way...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 6
Wednesday 18th March 10.00am The government is showing great leadership. Yes, the “lockdown”, such as it is, could have come a bit more quickly, but...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 5
Tuesday 17th March 1.00pm It’s St. Patrick’s Day. It’s raining. With the best will in the world I just can’t muster enthusiasm to go out...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 4
Monday 16th March 9.10am I sit down to breakfast. Paddy (18) already has the books out on the dining table. Liv (15) is his study...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 3
Hello folks! I will start by saying thank you for your effort in getting here: my links to this blog on the various social media...
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The Lockdown Blog: Days 0, 1 and 2
Thursday 12th March 1.00pm The Irish government announces that all schools are to close from the next day, Friday, and will remain closed 13th-29th March....
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Texaco Art Competition – and Lent Starts Today
Today was the last day the kids I teach could submit the paintings they had done for the Texaco Art Competition. This competition has been...
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Sorry For Your Loss
They say we do funerals very well in Ireland. Well, my mum says it, because she’s Canadian, and maybe they don’t do funerals as well...
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Sorry For Your Loss
They say we do funerals very well in Ireland. Well, my mum says it, because she’s Canadian, and maybe they don’t do funerals as well...
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Capture Your Family In Sketches
One of the most satisfying things I do as an urban sketcher is to capture my family in sketches. While I’m not one for putting...
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Sketching Is Getting Me Through January
January is awful, weather-wise, and this year is no exception. However I’m cheering myself up with a good bit of sketching. Technicolor in Neachtain’s After...
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Getting Attention Will Make You A Better Artist
I saw this TED Talk the other night, and I had a few thoughts that I’d like to share with you. Joseph G-L seems like...
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Happy New Year!
30th December 2019 My students are so full of enthusiasm for sketching in 2020 that it has inspired me in turn, so I am making...
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The Christmas Blog Post
Christmas Eve It’s Christmas in Kilcolgan, in our little corner of windswept west of Ireland. On Christmas Eve my daughter Liv and I went up...
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Festive Fun in Dublin City, and a Grudge Match
A Christmas Shopping Safari One crisp, cold winter’s night a few weeks ago, in Dublin on a sketching trip, I came to the end of...
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Creativity – All Day To Do It
“There are 35,000 people coming in and out of University College Dublin every day,” my colleague Michael Brennan told me the other evening. Michael is...
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Compostela Ilustrada! Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 8th-10th November 2019
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....
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At The Barbershop (Again)
Back to the barbershop to sketch. One of the reasons I love to sketch there is that because I have done it so often I...
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Some Flowers, And A Request For Advice
I have wonderful friends who live nearby. We get together a lot – walking our dogs, swimming in the sea – and we eat together...
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The Future Of Creativity Is Safe
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...
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He’s Just Not That Interested In Me (I Need A Nice Stick)
I was telling my girl Liv about my book sales. “Is it a bestseller?” she asked. She knows it is, but she also knows I...
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Summer Days in Galway
Back from Amsterdam last Sunday. Dublin Airport and a Citylink bus at 9.15pm. A Dublin cocky lad gets on the bus and asks the bus...
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The 10th International Urban Sketching Symposium, Amsterdam, July 24th-27th 2019
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,...
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A Week in Sweltering Amsterdam with My Family
This year, I brought my family with me to the Urban Sketching Symposium. It provided a nice balance between work and relaxing. My family is...
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A Watercolour Sketching Workshop in Haarlem, 19th-21st July 2019
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...
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It’s All Go In Galway
I’ve had quite the week. They come along like that every once in a while. Last Saturday week I met with members of Urban Sketchers...
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Beautiful Blossoms, Beautiful Youth
I was to draw a card for a relative. We have a beautiful orchid that lurks greenly in a corner, and then pounces into a...
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Capturing the Summer
It’s cold these days. Cold for June. For the first time in a long while, Irish people keep expecting a heatwave to arrive, like we’ve...
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Channelling Rembrandt
You know how it is – you put a proposal in for something, it gets accepted, you’re all “Hurray!” – and then you have to...
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Sketching the Best Boys
Sometimes sketchers visit other towns and look up the local sketchers. We meet for a drink or something to eat and do a bit of...
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Good Days in Galway
Last night I made a trip to Connemara in the company of Breandán and Colm from my Ciorcal Cómhra (Irish language conversation circle) in our...
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Let It All Go
Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to a small country town in Galway where my daughter does Taekwon-Do. There’s not a huge amount to do...
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The Hunt For Convenience Continues…
or, Great Things Urban Sketching Kits Come in Small Packages All urban sketchers love mini sketching kits. We crowd around the person with something ingenious...
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Water & Waves In Watercolour…
It’s May and it’s paradise here in Galway. It’s hard to find a place that is so totally unspoiled this close to action, but we...
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Channelling Hogarth
Last week I went to the south of Portugal. I was teaching a six-day watercolour sketching workshop: the idea was to share techniques that would...
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Ain’t Nothing But A Husky Digger
Last night was Taekwon-Do night in Gort for my youngest. I usually spend the evening in a combination of aimless driving and aimless wandering the...
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My Dad Says I’m A Hagfish
Until yesterday, I couldn’t have sketched my dobok, the white uniform you wear when kicking around in a taekwon-do session. But I hurt my hamstring...
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Help – I’ve Been Paintjacked!
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....
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Ten Thousand Hours (Some Of Them In Barbershops)
I was stuck indoors today: I have a chest infection and a broken, well, bum (see yesterday’s post about a flying high kick in Taekwon-Do...
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Taekwon-Do Part 2: Perseverance (When You’re Banjaxed)
It couldn’t last. Five classes in to my new favourite sport, Taekwon-Do, and I’m injured. What did I expect? I’m 51 years old and I’ve...
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The Journey Is Everything
At Taekwon-Do last night, the instructor took us though kicking moves. He explained the stance we should be taking and the part of the foot...
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