Watercolour painting in Herne Bay and Whitstable a bookseller tries to skive

I had to go to Herne Bay to buy some books for my bookshop in Ramsgate today. Having done this I went to the bandstand for a cuppa.

Here is the watercolour sketch of Herne Bay Bandstand 

Then onto Whitstable, an interesting place to find a parking space on a bank holiday weekend.

I made for Wee Willie Winkles, bought prawn sarni, cuppa, muffin; the idea being to sit at one of their tables, eat lunch and paint Whitstable harbour.

At this point it all went wrong Wee Willie Winkles have closed their customer toilets, they pointed out that there were public ones in the town, however I was fairly inconvenient at this point, so no watercolour.

Next I thought I would go down to the beach and paint the view

I found a suitable place to sit, as you can see it was fortunate I had my blow up cushion.

The big blue splodge occurred when the blow up cushion blew up, it was a particularly loud bang, I would like to extend my apologies to Tyson and Tarkwin’s mother, who was sunbathing beside me.

When you are painting en plein air and things start going wrong, sometimes the best thing to do is quit, so no more skiving and so off to Oxford Street Bookshop

I did by some tram books, something we are a bit short of at the moment 

A few Ramsgate adverts for 1934, a quick sketch of Herne Bay Clock Tower

The adverts are from the Ramsgate Guide for 1934, I publish a reprint of this guide so you can come into my bookshop and look at it if you want.

Anyway the reason for publishing them here is that having posted two old East Kent Critics, yesterday and the day before I was surprised at the amount of Thanet and East Kent bookshops advertising in them. I was tentatively leafing though old Thanet publications vaguely wondering if I should be a bit more proactive on the bookshop advertising front when I came across the one above for Blinko’s Bookshop. Anyone got the foggiest idea why a small bookshop in Ramsgate would need a bible warehouse, I know it was the mid 30s and the time of the depression, and yes I have seen Paper Moon, but even so. Perhaps I should generate some adverts with outlandish claims, although I suppose the advertising standards agency could give me some problems.

The Herne Bay sketch is a very quick one, about half an hour as most of my day off was spent out buying books for my bookshop.

 here is the picture for any art critics 

A bit more from the 1934 guide

Watercolour sketch of Herne Bay Clock Tower from Wetherspoons, ramble about Kentish architecture.

Another day out looking at books and buying a few, this one didn’t come to much and having meandered easterly along the north Kent coast I arrived in Herne Bay and was soon finished with the book business.

I should stress that those who remained in my bookshop put in a fine days work, local history books printed, our new publication about Thanet Benchmarks should be available in my bookshop on Monday, the printer that prints the book covers has been replaced and last but not least here are the books that went out on the shelves today http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/goosebumps-horrorland-in-bookshop.html

The Clock House in Herne Bay, like so many of the more interesting structures in Kent has been rubbished by Newman sic Pevsner in Penguin’s famous Buildings of England series, to the extent that it is worth a journey to Herne Bay just to see it.

Here is what he has to say:- “By Edwin F. Dangerfield, 1837. Portland stone tower of four stages, raised on seven steps. The inept design is instructive: the classical vocabulary thus debased was ripe for attack. Square round stage, with Greek Doric columns in threes at corners: then a stage with Corinthian columns in the same scale, which means that they look absurdly big. After that Mr Dangerfield hurriedly finished off with a pedimented cube and an octagonal domed top.”

One of the first and one of my favourite clock towers and worthy of Newman’s attentions, academic snobbery, intellectual tripe, classical absurdity of Porterhouse proportions, “beam me up Scottie”.  

Allthatsaid the pale stone against the pale sky makes it a beast to draw using only watercolour paint, it think this is my third attempt.

Watercolour sketch of Herne Bay Clock Tower from Wetherspoons, took about an hour and a half, Wetherspoons providing two cups of tea, an excellent salmon salad and chocolate fudge cake, extending the time to a very pleasant two hours.

Had I the time I would travel the county of Kent painting the charming buildings rubbished by our overly zealous and misguided leader of architects. But hey what a wonderful guide for Men of Kent, Kentish Men – Women of Kent, Kentish Women and even a DFL in 1965 like me it is. Isn't it?