Hollywood art director for animation Joey Mason is beginning to feel like a Galway local. Bathed in glorious sunshine on Inis Óirr while sketching some boats, he is in the middle of his second artist residency on the west coast of Ireland.

During the first one he spent the summer of 2022 living in the Watershed Studio Art Residency in Bushypark in Galway City, in buildings converted from an old fish factory and farm shed overlooking the Corrib.

There he created his ‘Quay Street Sketches’, a collection of cartoons inspired by our pedestrianised spine. Featured are scenes from McDonagh’s fish and chip shop, St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, fish mongers at the Galway Market, a group of buskers, a snug in Garavans and the seating area outside Tigh Cóilís.

“I was really immersed in Galway life,” he smiles, recalling that summer during the pandemic. “I did a lot of work while I was there.”

He also must have spent a lot of time in our famed hostelries, I joke. His cartoon of the Bunch of Grapes and Taaffes hang in those locals on High Street and Shop Street. In fairness one also hangs in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop.

“I pick a street and capture the variety of life on it rather than focusing on just the famous sites,” he explains.

“I’m in love with going out and researching and exploring a place in a journalistic sense, then documenting it in cartoon. Quay Street is the liveliest, most vibrant street in Galway, the biggest pedestrian thoroughfare, full of shops, music, colour.”

He kept in touch with people he met during his summer here, including artist Margaret Nolan, who is festival manager and exhibition curator of the Galway Cartoon Festival that takes place next month.

It was through her and others that he heard about the residency at the Aras Eanna Arts Centre on the Aran Island, the most westerly arts centre in Europe. The centre provides up to ten residencies each year, which includes accommodation, studio space, access to theatre facilities and galleries with a stipend paid to successful applicants.

In his day job, Joey works in Los Angeles as art director for TV and film animation projects. He usually works as part of a team to create characters, background and concepts for different projects. Many of them have been superhero animation shows, such as Spiderman, Stretch Armstrong on Netflix, Winnie the Pooh and the Marvel character Modok.

His cartoon sketches are what he does on his downtime, not that the 47-year-old has too much of that, with a wife and two children aged 9 and 12.

Which is why residencies are so valuable to his creativity. He has also done one in Belgrade, Serbia.

“It’s a great way for artists to travel and work. You stay with other artists and there’s usually a mini-community where you can connect, give feedback, support you. Every residency is different, in some there’s a fee to stay, others they pay you a stipend. The level of support is different in each one,” reveals Joey.

Some of his sketches have commanded big prices, among them Scarlet Spider-Verse which sold for €1,500. He creates them by hand with water-based and India inks, on heavyweight Bristol paper. Most have signature colour and chrome accent.

His cartoon style is very old-school, reminiscent of comic books from the 1950s, I suggest, somewhat surprising for a Gen X artist.

“I grew up in a newspaper family, my grandfather worked in a newspaper and I was around a lot of classic cartoon drawings my whole life. As a child I copied cartoons from comics and came up with my own characters. After college I worked in a comic bookshop. It’s been a lifelong pastime.”

While the Batman animated series from the 90s and Transformers he picks as among his all-time favourites cartoons, growing up he was an avid watcher of the Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera cartoons such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.

After his month-long residency, he will attend the Galway Comic Festival to launch his Quay Street Sketches at Charlie Byrnes on October 5.

The Galway Cartoon Festival, which has over 20 events and exhibitions, runs from October 4 to 9 at different venues throughout the city. Log onto galwaycartoonfestival.ie for details.

Pictured: Joey Mason…capturing Galway.