Margate, Northdown Road in 1950 and a Turner Contemporary changeover sketch, ramble

I do have this ongoing sketch from Turner Contemporary Café, for me it’s a bit of a learning cars and boats piece and as the café there both has a view and I don’t think there is ever likely to be an issue over sketching there, it’s a very good place to learn.

For some reason that I don’t really know I often have to go to Margate during the gallery’s exhibition changeover and so have done sketches of the inside of the café when it has a lot of people in it who presumably turned up to see an art exhibition that wasn’t on.

There is a bit of a strange Alice in Wonderland atmosphere and something of an art exhibit in itself to visiting an art gallery without an exhibition of any significance init.

So here is today’s watercolour painted in the café at Turner Contemporary in Margate, and yes I have to admit that my main reason for going to Margate today was to paint.this I don’t think the sketch is finished, but I ran out of people facing the right way the right distance away to paint.

Sorrow, back to rambling on about painting and Margate in abit, here are the Northdown Road 1950 street directory pages and this is the link if you want to buy the directory. 

A significant shopping street in its day all of the pictures in this post including the ones of the directory pages should expand with a bit of clicking. 

 Lots of people drinking at FEZ in retro clothes

 Henry's closing down sale, something of an end of an era, talking to the people there the main problem wasn't the internet but trying to trade in a street without enough shops open.

 Visiting a photography shop brings out the wosisname in me.

Back to the ramble 

Sos, egg and chips for lunch and a complaint, someone has gone and painted the observation tower thingy, that woz grey yeller or is it magnolia? 's right above the menu card.

 There is potential in the otherwise rather boring ceiling for a bit of the bends.

Turner Contemporary's lockers haven't been converted to the new pounds and I don't think they are going to be, you have to buy a token for life for a £1 now.

A bit of a fail again at trying to express the atmosphere at TC when there is no exhibition on and people turn up expecting one, turned up early to moan about Emin’s bed and it hadn’t been unmade yet sort of kidney. Perhaps I should have painted a made bed in the middle of the picture, or perhaps out Trace asitwere unmaking it.