Dingle Pub

 I did a second sketch for the NYC Urban Sketchers virtual event on Saturday. This time I picked a location that I'm sure would be celebrating St Patrick's Day in a big way...the Dingle Pub in Dingle, Ireland. It sits at the entrance to the beautiful Dingle Penninsula. When Jerry and I were in Ireland this was one of the towns we visited. Usually in the evening at least one of the pubs would have live music. I know we went to the Dingle Pub at least once. I have such good memories of that trip.

Irish Dancer

 In honor of St Patrick's Day which is celebrated this week, the NYC Urban Sketchers had St Patrick's Day and Ireland as their virtual event over the weekend. I started with a sketch of an Irish step dancer which was done from a combination of several photos online. I can almost hear the music!

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 26 - Yellow Irish Sky

Today is day 26 of the "30 Paintings" challenge. You can see more of the artwork on Leslie Saeta's blog here: http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com And vote if you want at Sea Dean's blog here:http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.com

Today's painting "Irish Yellow Sky" was painted from a reference photo I took in Kilmore Quay, Ireland.

Yellow Irish Sky by Joan Tavolott

I needed an ocean fix so I headed down to Smith Point Beach to visit the water. It was a windy day so the waves looked pretty good. Even though the temperature was probably warm enough to sit out and paint if I bundled up, the wind made it too difficult, so I painted this from my car. It was done in my sketchbook with oil pastels as a resist and watercolors.

Winter Waves by Joan Tavolot

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 17 - Storm Ahead

How did we get to painting 17 already? Please check out Leslie's blog to see her work and the work of the other artists. http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com

Today's painting is "Storm Ahead" and the sky colors are more grey than they appear here.

The photo reference for this was the hillsides in Kenmare, Ireland.

Storm Ahead by Joan Tavolott

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 8 - Stormy Sky

This is my Day 8 painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge with Leslie Saeta.

Here is a link to see the paintings by the other artists participating.

http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com

A contest is being held by the "Paint A Masterpiece" blog for entries to the challenge. You can take a look at Sea Dean's blog and vote too.
http://www.paintamasterpiece.blogspot.com

This painting was done from a photo I took when I was in Killarney National Park in Ireland. As you can see it wasn't a sunny day. I find dark clouds a challenge, so this was interesting to do. This painting is 5 x 7.

Stormy Sky by Joan Tavolott

Last evening the Patchogue Sketch Club met at The Cheese Patch on Main Street in Patchogue for our weekly sketch outing. It was fun to see everyone after the holidays, sketch the displays, sample some cheese and have a good time.

The Cheese Patch by Joan Tavolott

Sketches for Paint, Paper, Pencils & Pens

I am still contributing to the blog over on "Paint, Paper, Pencils & Pens" (link on the right). Some of the recent sketches have been shown here but there are a few that I didn't post.

Our theme at the end of April had been "Humans And the Things They Do".

This is a sketch I did from a photo I took at my Mike & Rachel's wedding about a year ago.

Mike is one of my nephews who live in California. This is tiny...about 3 x 4.

For the same theme I used a photo my sister, Mickey had posted of her and her newest grandchild, Mary. I love the "sleeping" positions babies can get into. Again this is about 3 x 4.

This man reading was done from a photo I took in France.

For the beginning of the month of May our new theme is "Animals."

The baby lamb was done from a photo I had taken in Ireland last year.

The cow was also done from one of my photos of Ireland.

Time Away From Home - Part I

Over on the "Paper, Paint, Pencils, & Pens" blog our new theme is "Time Away From Home."

We are sketching places and things that remind us of vacations, trips, or any time we spent away from home. I am doing sketches from photos taken on my many trips.

I started with a sketch of a musician my husband and I saw playing on the street in downtown Galway, Ireland last April. There was so much music in the pubs and on the streets there. I really enjoyed it. Yes, this young man did have red hair and a red beard.

In 1970 I took my first vacation with a friend. I wasn't even 21 years old yet when Suzanne and I flew out to California. We stayed a few days with her cousin and his family. Then we drove up the coast from San Diego to San Francisco making a few stops along the route. This was done from a very faded photo I took in Malibu.

I was young and in fairly good shape then. Here is a sketch of me in my bikini on the beach in Malibu. The blanket was a purchase we made when we took a trip down to Tiajuana, Mexico from San Diego. This was also done from one of my photos.

Backtracking to an earlier time, here is a sketch of a family vacation from when I was a kid. We rented this very rustic cabin on Little Sebago Lake in Maine. The cabin had a fireplace for heat on the cool Maine summer nights and only cold water and no tub or shower. Each cottage (I think there were 5.) had a rowboat and we spent a lot of time rowing around the lake. We thought it was paradise and went back for a week for a few summers. We always cried when it was time to go home. 

There will be more to come.

Gardens & Parks Continued

Here are a few more watercolor sketches I did for the Paper, Paint, Pencils, & Pens blog. If you click the palette link at the top right you can be magically transported over there and see what we are doing for the new theme. You can even join the blog if you would like to sketch with us.

This water pump was done from a reference photo I took in Adare, Ireland 

in front of a thatched cottage. This is 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

This was a planter in front of a building somewhere in Ireland.

This is ATC sized...2 1/2 x 3 1/2.

My last sketch for that theme is the "garden" area right in front of the patio of my apartment unit.

This was done on Monday when we had our surprise snowstorm that left us about 6 inches of show in just a few hours. Most of Long Island got a mere dusting of snow but we got clobbered. By the time I sketched this it had stopped snowing and our maintenance crew had shoveled the walkway.

Hopefully before long it will warm up and my patio railing will be filled with containers of colorful flowers. This is about 4 x 6.

Gardens and Parks Sketches

On the group blog I am doing called "Paper, Paint, Pencils, & Pens" our theme for the end of March was "Gardens and Parks." I already posted a few of the sketches I did and here are a few more.

This was done from a photo I took in the sculpture garden at Johnstown Castle in Ireland.

My sister, Fran, had a wonderful garden in Ramona, CA and I did this sketch from a photo I took of one of her bird of paradise plants.

Last spring I visited the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. This was done from one of the photos I took of a magnolia tree in bloom.

Stay posted for a few more "Gardens & Parks" sketches.

ATCs

Here are two more ATCs I've done for my landscape exchange on WetCavas.

This is "Ireland II" which was sent to my friend, Ai, in Thailand.

This was done from one of the photos I took in Ireland.

This was sent to Joanne in Oregon and is titled "Short Beach". 

It was done en plein air.

Kenmare and Shannon

Our next stop was Kenmare which is near Killarney National Park.

This is an area of the park called "Ladies View" and you can see the three lakes in the park from this spot. The view was just gorgeous...but the weather wasn't. I painted this from the car because it was drizzling outside. Right around this spot we drove around a curve and found the car surrounded by sheep, a sheepherder, and a sheepdog...just like in the movies! (And where was my camera?...in the back seat!) We had to wait for them to clear the road before we could drive any further.

Then we went into the town of Kenmare where we were staying.

This is a view down the main street.

We ate at the Thady Quill Pub at the Lansdown Arms Hotel 

and I sketched one of the customers reading.

The next morning we headed back to Shannon.

I had to make one stop at Bunratty Castle to sketch.

We returned our car and stayed overnight at the Park Inn Hotel at Shannon Airport.

The bar area offered some sketching opportunities.

My final sketches were done at Shannon Airport.

Here is our Aer Lingus plane waiting at the gate.

And one of the passengers waiting for our departure.

This wraps up my trip. Hope you enjoyed seeing the sketches and paintings.

Kinsale Part VI

This was in front of the pink house I posted yesterday.
It was quirky but cute.

On our last day in Kinsale I drove out to Old Head at the tip of the peninsula.

There were beautiful cliffs and a view of a golf course that had a lighthouse on it.

I parked at the top of the hill and walked down a ways to takes some photos.

Then I sat down and did this view of the cliffside.

This was the first day that it was warm enough to sit in the sun, 

so I took off my coat and sweater and was sitting just in my t-shirt.

I really liked the spot and shifted slightly to paint a second painting of the view of the cliffs and the golf course. I was almost finished when I turned to put something in my backpack and noticed that the sky was black behind me. Before I could finish packing up my supplies the wind picked up and it started pouring. There I was halfway down the hill and my car was at the top. I was soaked by the time I got up to the car. It was raining so hard by that point that I didn't drive until the rain let up a bit.

This was another view of the countryside outside of the town.

For our last night in Kinsale we went to Crackpots for dinner and a piano bar.

The piano player and singer did a lot of Dean Martin and Elvis music.

They were really entertaining.

Kinsale Part V

I loved this little house on the hill called the "Mansion House." I don't think the door was even 5 1/2 feet high. I'm sure I would have had to duck to get inside. But the colors were so great.

This house was right across the parking lot from ours in Kinsale. It looked so rosy, but tiny.

This is a view of an old shed that was near the fort that I posted yesterday.

The whole area had such nice views of the water.

Kinsale Part IV

Just outside the town was Charles Fort which protected the town through history. I liked the view of the water through the arch of the entrance. I nearly blew away painting this one. lol

This is another view looking out from the harbor. The land is so green.

This gem down by the harbor looked like it needed a little TLC, but I imagine

that it had a wonderful view of the area.

We went to Kitty O Se's a second night to hear traditional Irish music.

They started out with 3 musicians and over the course of the evening 3 more musicians 

came in and sat down to join them. Then another musician from the USA who had her clarinet in her hotel room joined in. It was really a fun night.

Kinsale Part III

We ventured from Kinsale one day to Barryscourt Castle in Carrigtwoohill, just east of Cork.

The castle was really lovely, but not open for tours. I liked the building next to it too...it reminded me of a building in Provence.

Another place that had great music was the Bar Cafe at the Blue Haven Hotel.

The first night we went there the band played mostly popular music, not traditional Irish, which was a change. There were 5 musicians, but I could only see 2 of them from our table.

Don't you just love a place that is this colorful?

Dalton's Bar also had traditional music one night, but we didn't get there.

Kinsale Part II

I don't know where my head is. I posted the story about the Milk Pail Cafe waiter and never posted the painting of the building. lol Sorry about that! Here it is.

Like the other areas we visited we had rain/showers when we were in Kinsale...and it was on the cold side. I went down to the end of the harbor to paint the landscape across the water. It was very windy which made it even colder and of course it showered before I got back. Between my coat hood and my umbrella I was able to keep dry.

The house we rented in Kinsale was called Church Cottage and was right near St. Multose Church and Cemetery. The house had a rooftop patio and this was the view looking toward town. You can see a bit of the church, some of the graves, and the town behind them. I guess it could have been a bit morbid overlooking the graveyard, but it was really interesting looking.

Kinsale had a lot of pubs with live music at night. Each night there was a choice of where we would go. I sketched this at Kitty O Se's. We didn't have a view of the musicians so I sketched the people at the next table.