Sunday 6 July 2014

The National Gallery


I finally made it to the National Gallery today, which I had been planning to visit since arriving in Dublin 6 weeks ago, and also which is only 5 minutes walk from my work! Actually I had been inside the building just to get some information - asked the nice lady on front desk what period the art was from - was told "Well they're all dead now"... and just remembered I'd planned to try and prove her wrong by finding something by a living artist! Ah well, next time. Anyway she's probably right. They seem to be in the middle of a long long refurbishment project so the majority of the works are in storage, but there's still a good collection of both Irish and international art.







 
 



 
Then moved onto some 1 - 3 minute timed sketches in the international wing. Old Caravaggio-type stuff plus a few sculptures.



La la la la last weekend!



Another sketch, another Dublin statue! This guy is hidden away singing his heart out in a corner of the rather lovely Iveagh Gardens in the city centre. World famous, apparently...















I also went along to the Chester Beatty library on Sunday with the Dublin Sketchers drawing group (http://dublinsketchers.blogspot.ie/). The place is a fantastic collection of all sorts of artistic treasures - illustrations, manuscripts, textiles, decorative items... ALL sorts. My personal favourites were a selection of 16th century Middle Eastern drawings with text of New World people, plants, buildings and animals, which the artist had based on some Italian writings... ok I'm not sure if these details are correct, but anyway, the artist had drawn an armadillo as a bird, and a blue anteater... great place to draw, if a little dark (to preserve all the ancient art!). The sketch on the right is taken from a Japanese print of some famous actor of his time. He should be holding a big yellow chair over his head but I ran out of time / space!