So many stories are shared over a cup of tea:

Warming the pot, pouring the tea, the familiar feel and weight of a much-used tea pot.

Getting out the cups, the feel of your favourite cup in your hands, the warmth of the tea. 

The careful handling of the good cups, a gift for a wedding, an anniversary.

Cups or mugs? Does tea taste better in a china cup?

Tea caddies for teabags, or loose leaf tea, tea strainers, reading the leaves.

We share stories over a cup of tea as part of our arts programme for older adults called Lonradh.

Lonradh (pronounced lun-rah) is an Irish word which means to illuminate.

In the slide show below, Gillian and Inge share elements of our current postal project, while warmly inviting you to share a cuppa!

Slide 1

‘Tea for two and two for tea’

Image: Gillian Cussen, 2021

Slide 2

Lonradh in a Box is the current Lonradh programme, following on from the Lonradh at home series of videos posted on the Crawford Art Gallery’s website. https://crawfordartgallery.ie/lonradh-at-home-video/ .

Image: Gillian Cussen, 2021

Slide 3

Image: Gillian Cussen, 2021

Slide 4

For Lonradh in Box we are compiling a series of ‘Art Envelopes’ to send to participants at home.
Each ‘Art Envelope’ contains a theme, suggested activities, art materials and a number printed images of works from the Crawford Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

Mainie Jellett, Abstract Hemisphere, watercolour on paper, Crawford Art Gallery Collection

Slide 5

Mainie Jellett, Abstract Hemisphere, watercolour on paper, Crawford Art Gallery Collection

Slide 6

Sharing a cup of tea has always been central to the Lonradh sessions.
We would like to invite you to share a cup of tea with us.

Slide 7

Image: Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021

Slide 8

How do you make tea? Do you scald the pot first? Do you leave it brew? Milk in first? How many tea bags?

Image Gillian Cussen, 2021

Slide 9

Image Gillian Cussen, 2021

Slide 10

The careful handling of the good cups, a gift for a wedding, an anniversary.
Cups or mugs? Does tea taste better in a china cup?

Image: Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021

Slide 11

Image: Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021

Slide 12

Would you like to draw your favourite cup or tea pot?

Recent drawing from participants Eileen and Áine Corcoran

Slide 13

Recent drawing from participants Eileen and Áine Corcoran

Slide 14

Any thoughts that come to mind? The sound of the kettle boiling, the feel of the tea leaves, the smell of loose tea, freshly made tea.

Portrait of Anthony Cronin 1977, by Edward Mc Guire

Slide 15

Portrait of Anthony Cronin 1977, by Edward Mc Guire

Slide 16

Thank you
Gillian and Inge Lonradh Artist Facilitators. For more information you can contact us by:
email:lonradh@crawfordartgallery.ie
or by phone: 021 4907857 Anne Boddaert Curator/Programme Manager.

Recent drawing from participants Eileen and Áine Corcoran

Suggested Activities

Feel free to try any or all of the following suggestions.

Take your favourite item associated with tea/tea making and draw it.

1. Create a simple print using carbon paper.
   Put the shiny side of the carbon paper face down on your
   sketchbook page. Use a sharp pencil or biro to draw on the carbon
   paper. Lift the paper every so open to have a look at your drawing.
   The carbon paper will make the drawing look like a print.
2. Tea can stain, so if you brush it onto paper or soak the paper in a
   bowl of cold tea, when dry it will give an aged look.
3. List some thoughts that come to mind associated with tea.
4. Such as, the sound of the kettle boiling, the feel of the tea leaves,
   the smell of loose tea, freshly made tea.
5. Can you think of any sayings you might know about tea?
   For example, ‘So strong you could trot a mouse on it or so weak
   you’d take it outside for fear it would faint’
   ‘Life is like a cup of tea, it’s all in how you make it’
6. How about a poem or a song?

Some interesting reading about Tea:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/a-taste-for-tea-1.1366186

This activity is part of our Lonradh programme for older adults, their family members and their carers, devised and facilitated by Gillian Cussen and Inge Van Doorslaer. 

For more information you can contact us by 
email: lonradh@crawfordartgallery.ie 
or by phone: 021 4907857
Anne Boddaert Curator/Programme Manager.

Lonradh 2021

Spring is in the air. It arrives slowly here, almost reluctantly. Then all of a sudden the waiting is over and it’s here in all its fresh new greenness. 

Take some time to sit back in a comfortable chair by the window, look outwards and simply watch. Gaze at the scene unfolding in front of you. It could be a village road with a wandering dog, a newly ploughed field or a city street. What do you see?

How about taking your pencil for a walk? You can gently move around the shapes of what you can see. Keep it very loose, and relaxed. Don’t worry about getting things right. Imagine the feel of things as you draw them. e.g we can see a cat asleep in the spring sunshine and notice the curled outline of her warm furry body.

Look at the outlines of things you can see. E.g. the line of a hedge, roof tops, bird on a wire, the edge of a field. Starting on one side of your page, try drawing some of the upper outlines you see. You can draw in one continuous flow until you get to the other side of your page. Try following the lower outlines and draw along in the other direction.

If it is difficult for you to get up and about see the slideshow below, Inge and Gillian share some of their own views from windows at home. As well as works from the Crawford collection that you may enjoy as conversation prompts.

Slideshow

 All mages: Gillian Cussen and Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021, except where stated.

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Robert Ballagh (1943) Portrait of Patrick Kavanagh, 2003

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Gerard Dillon (1916 - 1971) Evening Star

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This drawing activity is part of our Lonradh programme for older adults, their family members and their carers.
Lonradh is an Irish word the at means to illuminate.

You can watch some gentle Lonradh videos here 
https://crawfordartgallery.ie/lonradh-at-home-video/

Gillian and Inge
Lonradh Artist Facilitators

For more information you can contact us by 
email: lonradh@crawfordartgallery.ie 
or by phone: 021 4907857

Anne Boddaert Curator/Programme Manager.

Spring and early summer bring more opportunities for getting out and about.

The days are longer now and we are venturing out more.
Being around people, sitting on a favourite bench, watching the world go by. Do you have a pet keeping you company?

There’s a return of familiar wondrous sensations - the sound of birds and the buzzing of bees, the smell of the sea, a swallow flying by, the taste of an ice cream.
Close your eyes and feel the warm air on your skin, take a deep breath.

Looking into the distance, what can you see?
Trees on the horizon, a city skyline, sailing boats….

Our weather can be unpredictable with warm sun followed by soft rain, getting caught in a sudden shower, sheltering, the smell after rain.

“The dearest events are summer-rain”, Ralph Waldo Emmerson

“Ne'er cast a clout till May be out”

Slideshow

 All images: Gillian Cussen and Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021, except where stated.

Dandelion

Dandelions1_

Dandelions6_

Dandelions3_

Dandelions10_

Dandelions12_

Dandelions13_

Dandelions15_

Dandelions9_

Dandelions7_

Dandelions1

Mark Hathaway, Untitled, 1982, oil on canvas, Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Dandelions2

Beatrice E. Gubbins, Line of Trees, watercolour on paper,
presented to the Crawford Art Gallery 1986.

Dandelions3

Edith Somerville, Character Sketches, c.1890, pencil on paper,
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Dandelions4

Norah Brigid Ni Chuill, Children Playing with Skipping Rope and Hoop,
Oil on Canvas. Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Suggested Activities

How about trying some drawing outside?

Find a comfortable place to sit, with space for your art materials, you will also need a small container for water.
Close your eyes and enjoy your surroundings.
What do you hear - birdsong, children playing, traffic?
What do you smell - freshly cut grass, flowers?
Do you see anything or anyone interesting - an unusual tree or animal, someone fishing?
“A swan goes by head low with many apologies,…..”
Patrick Kavanagh, Lines written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin.

Using the watercolour pencils, try a few quick sketches of anything around you that catches your eye. Then dip one of your brushes into the water and brush gently over your drawing and you’ll see the colour start to spread a bit.
Play around with the amount of water you use, you can also use the pencil again when the drawing is still wet, or when it has dried.
Try leaving another drawing out in the rain instead of using a brush.

Have a look at one of the more common flowers like a dandelion or a daisy. Try putting one or two flowers/leaves in your sketchbook, and press them.

Do any stories, sayings, poems or songs come to mind?
e.g. blowing the clock, making a daisy chain, buttercup under the chin?
We chose a poem which we felt really honoured the ever-present Dandelion.

Here’s something lively to listen to ‘The Nightingale’ by the Dubliners

Dear dandelion,

Dear dandelion,
You are often considered a weed,
Yet you are so joyously bright, like a small sun.
Your leaves feed and heal.
You are phenomenally strong,
Strong and persistent enough to break through concrete,
And, having so many seeds so easily distributed, irrepressible.

Dear dandelion,
I imagine a future where the principles by which the world operates are golden rules:
first do no harm, care for all life, seek joy.

Dear dandelion,
If our deepest compass points to that future,
It's the one we will bring into being.
We can be like you - joyful, bright, healing, persistent, stronger than concrete, irrepressible,
So very many of us.

Jojo Mehta,
dedicated to the memory of Polly Higgins 1968 - 2019.

We are in touch again, meeting in person, shaking hands, patting each other on the back for making it through this challenging year. Touch feels so precious now.

It is so fundamental and not always given as much importance as the senses of sight, sound, smell and taste.

Take a seat, look at your surroundings and observe the varied textures around you. Are they soft, spiky, smooth?
Touch the seat you are sitting on - how does it feel? Close your eyes, do you notice that things feel a little different
without actually looking at them? Warm to the touch. Smooth as silk.

Can you recall any other sayings that were in common use when you were young?
‘Touch has a memory’ (Keats)
It can be interesting to try to describe a memory of the feel of something.
A holiday in the sun, sand slipping through your fingers.
A garden in bloom, touching a rose petal.
In this envelope you will find prints of a selection of art works from the Crawford Art Gallery’s permanent collection, along with some suggested activities and art materials.

Surrounded by texture

 All images: Gillian Cussen and Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021, except where stated.

BeinginTouch10

BeinginTouch5

BeinginTouch8

BeinginTouch7

BeinginTouch11

BeinginTouch13

BeinginTouch14

BeinginTouch16_

BeinginTouchPicture1

BeinginTouchPicture2

BeinginTouch1

Kathy Prendergast, Hand, chalk pastel on paper,
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

BeinginTouch2

Jack B. Yeats, Returning from the Bathe Midday, 1948, oil on canvas,
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

BeinginTouch3

Sylvia Cooke-Collis, Potters Shed, oil on board,
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

BeinginTouch4

Soirle MacCana, Light and Shade Youghal, watercolour on paper,
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Suggested Activities

Feel free to try any or all of the following suggestions. Use your sketchbook as much as possible.

Take some time to observe all the different textures around you.
Choose something with a texture that you like.
Try handling it with your eyes closed. How does it feel?
Is it soft, smooth, bumpy, warm or cold to the touch?

You can also experience texture by a technique called ‘rubbing’.
A rubbing is a simple printmaking process where you place a piece of
paper over a surface and rub gently over the covered texture with a soft
art material, like charcoal or crayon.
Greaseproof paper is great for picking up texture. You can also try other
papers as long as they are not too thick.
Cover a textured object, such as a table mat, a wicker basket..etc, with
the greaseproof paper and, turning the charcoal or crayon on its side,
gently rub it over the paper and see the texture emerge.
You can also take your materials outside and take a rubbing of an
interesting texture e.g a stone wall or the bark of a tree.
Using old newspapers as a background can give interesting effects.
You could even try doing a drawing over your rubbings for a layered
effect.

Can you think of any phrases associated with touch?
A touch of the sun, touch and go, touch wood.

List some memories of touch: The feel of a favourite dress, the warm
summer sun on your face, a familiar well worn cap.

There are many ways to stimulate your senses even through an art
exhibition.

Have a look at this interesting link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-13eXcHaf3M

Nowhere you couldn’t go

Do you remember
when you sat alone
in a hot lazy field
and thought about a place
millions of miles away
and you felt yourself
filling up with wonder
and the mystery of the thought?
The sky curved away
into a perfect dome
and you thought about a place
far beyond it
and something mysterious
stirred inside you.
You could hear the sounds
of the village
and you know them all
but there was something else
so huge and immense
that you got the strangest
feeling.
It was scary
and it was exciting.
Do you remember?
It was summer.
It was childhood.
It was wonder.
It was you.

Pat Ingoldsby, from his collection ‘Poems so fresh and so new…Yahoo!

“We’ve crisps with sand, And cake with sand -
It’s grand with lunch or tea - Crunch it up, Enjoy it love,
At least we’re by the sea!” (from Picnic by Judith Nicholls)

Do you remember the feel of summer picnics by the sea? Claiming your spot, spreading out the tartan rug, deck chairs, buckets and spades, the newspaper and of course the picnic. What was your favourite picnic food as a child?

Luke-warm tea in a flask, squashed sandwiches in waxed paper, lemonade, Tayto crisps, soft ice cream between wafers, a paper bag of periwinkles.

“Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea,” (John Betjeman)

What did you do at the seaside?
Exploring rock pools, collecting seashells, playing football and hurley, building sandcastles, the scramble as the tide came in. But it wasn’t always hot was it?

Windswept beach, freezing water, being splashed, ‘once you get down, it’s lovely’, packing up in a hurry, racing to shelter as rain swept in.

The journey home was often quite different to the drive there. Searching for the car keys, strawberries for sale on the roadside. Norman Rockwell illustrates this so well in his painting ‘Coming and Going’. It is a great example of a ‘before and after’ painting with a story that anyone can identify with. https://www.youtube.com/watch.

Slideshow

 All images: Gillian Cussen and Inge Van Doorslaer, 2021, except where stated.

Summersun1a_

Summersun7_

Summersun9

Summersun9a

Summersun10_

Summersun12_

Summersun11

Summersun13_

Summersun13a

Summersun15

Summersun1_

Stephanie Dinkelbach, Two Figures, ceramic. Crawford Art Gallery Collection

Summersun2_

Michael De Burca, Iompair Feamuinne (Seaweed Collectors on a Strand)
watercolour on paper. Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Summersun3_

William Crozier, The Ripe Field, 1989, oil on canvas.
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Summersun_4

Camille Souter, Achill, 1960, oil on paper laid on board.
Crawford Art Gallery Collection.

Suggested Activities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU
What tastes do you associate with a summer's day out?
The taste of summer: salty chips, sandy sandwiches, melting ice cream.

Can you think of any sayings about June?
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” (L. M. Montgomery)

Watercolour painting is a lovely technique to try, very simple, effective and at times wonderfully unpredictable. Using the discs of watercolours and the watercolour paper provided, choose a favourite picnic food, e.g strawberries that you might like to paint.

You could try doing a quick outline in pencil first and then move on to the paint or alternatively start with a paint brush. Painting on wet or dry paper will give different effects. Try sprinkling a small amount of salt on areas of your wet painting and see what happens when it reacts with the wet paint.

How about a poem or a song?

We like ‘June’ by Francis Ledwidge (below). There is a lovely rhythm to his words, try reading it out loud, to get the feeling of June.
Have a look at the reprints included in this Art Envelope. Which do
you like best and why?

Here’s a universal song of summer you might like to listen to.
You may have some of your own to sing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU

June

Broom out the floor now, lay the fender by,
And plant this bee-sucked bough of woodbine there,
And let the window down. The butterfly
Floats in upon the sunbeam, and the fair
Tanned face of June, the nomad gipsy, laughs
Above her widespread wares, the while she tells
The farmers’ fortunes in the fields, and quaffs
The water from the spider-peopled wells.
The hedges are all drowned in green grass seas,
And bobbing poppies flare like Elmo’s light,
While siren-like the pollen-stained bees
Drone in the clover depths. And up the height
The cuckoo’s voice is hoarse and broke with joy.
And on the lowland crops the crows make raid,
Nor fear the clappers of the farmer’s boy,
Who sleeps, like drunken Noah, in the shade
And loop this red rose in that hazel ring
That snares your little ear, for June is short
And we must joy in it and dance and sing,
And from her bounty draw her rosy worth.
Ay! soon the swallows will be flying south,
The wind wheel north to gather in the snow,
Even the roses spilt on youth’s red mouth
Will soon blow down the road all roses go.
Francis Ledwidge