During our escape to Dublin last month we encountered many distinguished taverns. Every avenue appeared to have a beautifully aged watering hole (or two). We fell into this one with weary feet, having padded the city streets for most of the day. Turns out we found one of the most celebrated locations in the Temple Bar area; The Palace Bar is a 200 year old heritage pub found on Fleet Street. We certainly enjoyed our pints, with the warm service and fantastic decor. Once back in the studio it felt like an excellent place to start with a little pub painting!
Here are some photos of the piece I created this week… using acrylic paints and hand drawn ink on paper. The acrylic paper I like to use is incredibly sturdy and holds up brilliantly when cut (not to mention adjusted, moulded, stuck together and generally messed around with). In real life the building is a taller four story facade with a curtain of lights running down from the roofline. But I decided to simplify it for this square box composition, focusing on the decorative window and twin entrances.
Constructing The Palace Bar
Embedded below is a short video showing how the layers build to make the final picture. Followed by a view of the details you can see from different angles. The box frame is 6cm deep which allows for plenty of height on each layer. ‘The Palace Bar Dublin’ is 27 x 27 cm fully framed.
I haven’t managed to post any of my photos or sketches from this Dublin trip yet (Easter holidays got in the way of that). I’ll try and share a few in the next week and link back to here. There were plenty more little studies like this one to come back to… should I find myself at a loose end project wise. You can keep an eye on my paper cut dioramas or indeed watch out for my #pubpaintings tag for updates in this loose series.
