Smithfield Horse Market

One man with his mut and mare

Now here's a time when I wish I was a morning person. The Smithfield Horse Market is on at the crack of dawn the first Sunday of every month. I managed to horse myself out of bed one such Sunday and went down with my sister Julie to take some photos.

sultry

My God, there's nowhere else you'd find such a proliferation of patterny jumpers and wild children on miniature ponies. We had to mind out for galloping young bucks with their shell tracksuits caught taut in the wind like the sail of a boat.

geansaí nollag den scoth

We had great chats with some of the people there. One Roscommon farmer was selling a miniature pony called Paddy. Most of the roll of film went on Paddy's dusty blond forelocks and pink bridle. We were told that the farmer's grandson once managed to fit Paddy into his wardrobe!

This is not Paddy. Paddy's about 15 hands smaller than this beast

Turns out though that when I went to get the photos developed, the wind on in the camera hadn't worked at all. So all I got back was smooth brown negatives and a dejected feeling in the pit of my stomach. I made this drawing from the pithy pits of disappointment. There's nothing else more satisfying that that.

Slobber

Soapy city

ice flakes

On the very first day of this brand new year, in the very early morning,

I discovered how quickly rain can change to friendly snow....

can change to a heart-racing snowball war...

can change to frozen mounds of ice..

can change to compressed ice

can change to slippery death-paths!

treacherous tumbles

An elderly gentleman, armed with a crutch, stopped to give us tactical advice about how to get across Grattan bridge (the best of Dublin's bridges...a horse-mermaid at every lamppost!)

the sickening slip

I hope he got home safely. I assume he did. Although, the above is what flashed through my mind as he skated away.

useless crutch

the texture of the paths

Slippery as dancing on bars of soap, we slid separate ways back to warmth, clutching at pillars of snow, elbows and railings that stick to exposed, pink hands.

This has nothing to do with the topic really....I just love these hats.

The Elephant and His Balloon

My coach and all round great pal Carol Mulligan and I recently hatched a plan to make a kid's book for our friend's birthday.






Our friend Aoife is a H-U-G-E Dylan Moran fan and so we decided to make a book based on the story of The Elephant and His Balloon which appears in the television series Black Books. (I have yet to see this episode. An evening with a telly, minibars and the dvd series is on the cards). Here are the illustrations I did for the book.






There's the elephant.

He's happy with his balloon.

Oh no! It's gone!

Where IS it?

It's not behind the rhino.

Look in the alligator's mouth. It's not there either!

Oh! The monkey's got it in the tree!

He brings it back.

Then they all drink lemonade.

The end.

Carol read the story in the most soothing tones while I turned the pages on a very windy day. Then Carol uploaded the video onto youtube and hey presto! Aoife was given the tag as a talisman and she found her birthday present online. She's living in Edinburgh so I sent her the book by postman. Happy birthday Aoife! Well done everyone!


See for yourself here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbWmj5Zhrm8

Christmas Crafting

a little hommage to the unbeautiful christmas jumper

Tomorrow and on Sunday, my friends and I will be hawking our crafty wares at a Christmas market in the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray. Come! Come along!



My good buddy, Fiona Hallinan and I have been having a whale of a time these past few months. We've squirrelled ourselves away drawing in her kitchen, comparing pencil cases with a delighted gasp, swimming in the brimful sea and dancing like dervishes after all the work is done. We emerged blinking in the light with a children's book for adults. We called it Things We Have Learned From Thinking About Animals. Here are some of the illustrations which I made for it. You can see more of Fiona's beautiful work here.








There will also be handmade christmas cards, baubley brooches, oragami christmas decorations, homemade fudge, beautiful necklaces, felt earrings...you get the idea. It's going to be a treasure trove!




Hope to see you there!