Electric Picnic

This weekend I will be going to Electric Picnic Music Festival. We are bringing our daughter Megan who is seven. Can't wait. I will bring my notebook to make doodles of the shenanigans!

Everyone can draw!

I believe everyone can draw, just pick up a pencil and make a mark.
When I have an idea going around in my head I try to capture it in my notebooks. Little doodles, character sketches, snippets of conversations. Nearly everyone I know doodles when they are on the phone or taking notes. Children are so comfortable making marks on paper. I know from doing workshops that the older children get, the more self conscious they become. A four year old will not worry about what the other children think of his drawing but the eight year old will. They will say, 'I'm no good at drawing, I can't do it.' But you can. Everyone can. Even stick figures radiate charm.
The UK has The Big Draw. It has one aim to get everyone drawing. The Big Draw proves that drawing can be an enjoyable public activity as well as a private passion. It is inspired by the visionary Victorian artist and writer, John Ruskin. His mission was not to teach people how to draw, but how to see.
I have been mulling over this one for a while, Ireland has lots of book festivals and events that celebrate literary events but a HUGE gap exists for celebrating and encouraging drawing. Not sure where to start on this one, you need it to be in public spaces: Museums, Art Galleries. You also need it to be very accessable to all ages, you need funding. Anyone want to help me?

Books 2008. New Literary Festival

I will be taking part in Sunday Independent's Books on September the 6th in Dublin. It's a new festival based in Dublin. Book and check it out here.

Dolls in Lisbon

In May I went to Lisbon with my girlfreinds for a relaxing and slightly mad couple of days. We spent an afternoon looking into shop windows, this are some of my favourite images from that day. You start to thinking about the children that once loved these dolls, now they are just staring out waiting for someone. I like the one with the cheeky eyes in the right corner. The shop was closed to I wasn't able to free any of them that day. I will have to return.

Out West..again

I deleted the last 'Out West' message so here is a replacement. How do you find those lost messages?
Last week was spent out west in lovely Leitrim. Highlights include huddling in a colourful tent on the beach with Dee, Emer and Baby Meabh, watching Owen and my two brothers Daniel and Fergus surf in Sligo. The rain came down after and we ate yummy pizzas in the car. Lovely walks in leafy Slish Woods by Lough Gill, lots of splashing in puddles in colourful wellies. I roughed up my new book then took our kids to see Wall-E. When you go to the cinema with my kids they give a running commentary, 'Look Mum, there's Wall-E' 'Oh hello Wall-E'! 'He's so-ooo funny.' Megan ate her weight in popcorn. When it rains sometimes you have a better time because you have to come up with great things to do.

Sorry to the lovely girl that left a message from Leitrim I deleted your first one. But I did get to read it and thank you for the invite. Yes I agree Fergus is a great name.

OOPS! and now this

Sorry I seemed to delete yesterdays message, I never got a chance to reply to the invite from the girl in Leitrim. Oops can you can you post again?

When I was researching for Cinderella, I was allowed access to the Early Printed Books section of Trinity College Library. It was so amazing to be able to handle and make sketches of 15th and 16th century books. The Keeper Charles Benson was amazing. He told me that the collection was catalogued according to author, not by illustrator or content. It was his knowledge of the books and what was contained inside them that helped me so much. I told Charles that I would love to see books similar to the Les Très Riches Heures, a medieval manuscript that was painted by the Limbourg Brothers in the 15th Century. Charles would then disappear down into the vaults and come back with the most amazing illustrated volumes that were a wonderful inspiration to me. I spent many days in the reading room making little pencil notes in my notebook. You are not allowed bring in pens or ink to the reading room. After a few days of this Charles told me 'Why don't you bring in your digital camera and take some photos!' And so I did, the images are out of copyright here are a few little doodles from the drawing days.