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 there. As I started class today, the mum who’d just dropped a few...
View ArticleSorry 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 there. As I started class today, the mum who’d just dropped a few...
View ArticleTexaco 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 going for decades in Ireland: many Irish adults still bear the...
View ArticleUrban Sketching Workshop: Heritage & Human Ingenuity in Kent, UK
The county of Kent, in the south of England, offers many historic destinations to excite the urban sketcher. Join me this September 11th-15th for an inspiring workshop there. The post Urban Sketching...
View ArticleThe 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. Later, my good pal Lorraine collects the kids...
View ArticleThe 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 are refusing to work. I suspect I have a problem with my website because...
View ArticleThe 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 buddy, and she is nowhere to be seen. I phone up to her bedroom but get...
View ArticleThe 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 for a walk. I decide to do a fun drawing for kids to put up on...
View ArticleThe 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 a good balance was struck between doing too little...
View ArticleThe 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 to continue teaching online. It is moderately successful: the video quality...
View ArticleThe 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 out half an hour later. She is on a deck chair outside my studio window,...
View ArticleThe 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 else who wants to tune in. I am very lucky to teach the nicest...
View ArticleThe 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 for a walk in the Burren. Reuben scratches prettily at the door, and I ask...
View ArticleThe 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 bunch of lovely women. It would have been the last day of my workshop...
View ArticleThe 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 my studio for help with his Spanish oral exam. He has the Leaving Cert...
View ArticleThe Lockdown Blog, Day 13
Thursday 26th 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 eyes, a shrub in the distance bursts into flames. It is sudden and...
View ArticleThe 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 over Reuben, the fluffy white terrier, who is gamboling around the bedrooms carefree and...
View ArticleThe 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. He says if we think he is going to hang underpants on the...
View ArticleThe 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 concentration is shot but I have promised to send everything by,...
View ArticleThe 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 as I can. Looks are deceptive, however, and she is as fit...
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