Margate Art Lovely Lovelys is 120

Lovelys the art shop in Northdown Road, Cliftonville in Margate is celebrating its 120^th anniversary, I went there today to get some bits and pieces and they have just opened a contemporary art gallery upstairs.

The picture of the advertisement above is from the book I publish “Margate and Westgate With Birchington 1903-04”

The exhibition on there, starting today and on until 9^th July is called “Fish and Ships” this is three dimensional pictures and sculptures made of papier-mâché (French lit; mashed paper). This is well worth a look at.

I once made a full sized rowing boat out of papier-mâché and can imagine it wouldn’t be easy stuff to sculpt well.

I was very taken by the brush and the three dimensional picture of Lovelys shop.

When it comes to buying artist’s materials Lovelys is the place to go in Thanet, they have some very good special offers and a comprehensive high quality stock.

As I mentioned in a previous post I have taken up painting and drawing again after a forty year gap and decided the painting had better be watercolour, at the moment I am at the pre amateur stage with this so am using mostly the quality of materials that children use. However there are some things you just have to buy from an art shop, one of these is gummed tape so you can stretch the paper, otherwise it goes all crinkly when you get it wet, another is a small flat pocket water bottle, unless you are going to make your own water, as it were.

When the need for these came up I had to visit a certain well known shopping centre with a chain art shop, they didn’t have either. The gummed tape in particular surprised me as you can’t really paint with watercolour without it and they had masses of watercolour paint and paper.

Anyway Lovelys had a selection of both.

Bit of a problem with the my new camera, I still haven’t got used to it so that it takes me much longer to get the settings right, taking pictures in a relatively small place like Lovelys, moving very slowly and pressing the wrong buttons tends to unnerve people.

I wanted to get the three dimensional pictures to look three dimensional, sorry to say this didn’t work too well, anyway here is what was on the camera card http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop611/id5.htm

FIRE & PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

From Clive Heart

After applying consistent pressure on Kent Highways I am today informed that a pedestrian walkway will now finally be formed around the hoarding covering the recent fire damage in Northdown Road.

New youth groups started in Cliftonville

This is a press release from TDC and I will endeavour to publish them as they come out in the future, two reasons one is that the YDC site has no feeds which means I can’t just add their site to the recent posts on the sidebar and the other is there is no where that one can comment on their press releases that others can view.

Two new youth groups, focusing on dancing and football, have been started in Cliftonville, with the help of a worker who’s funded by the Safer Stronger Communities Fund.

The Street Football club meets quarterly at the Quarterdeck every Monday evening form 7pm to 9pm and is aimed at those aged 11 years and older. Sessions are free and take place on the Muga (multi use games area) at the Quarterdeck area, which provides a safe area to play.

The Street Dance Troupe has free weekly sessions at the Quarterdeck on Friday evenings between 7pm and 8pm for 13 year olds and older. It’s also got a sister troupe that meets on Mondays at St. John’s Community Centre from 4.30pm to 6.30 pm for those aged four and over, with mums welcome.

Both groups are run by their own youth committee, meaning young people have a say in agreeing what the group does. The groups are supported by both the St. John’s NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group) which helps them to raise funds, and Beth Denning, the Community Cohesion and Development Officer for the Kent Refugee and Minority Support Group, who is funded by the Safer Stronger Communities Fund.

Beth says: “It’s great to be involved with such a great group of young people. The groups are growing from strength to strength, due to their enthusiasm and commitment.”

The two groups have received an enthusiastic response from the young people already taking part. Jamie, one of the three football coaches at the Street Football club, said: “I’m playing the game I love and I’ve had coaching training. It’s good to feel part of something.” Toni, one of the dancers at the Street Dance Troupe, says: “I love coming to Street Dance. I didn’t think I could do it, but the instructors are really cool and I’m healthier now”.”

To find out more about the two groups, contact Beth on 0779 222 6103.