Ramsgate Harbour Arches Watercolour, some progress, some thoughts on the difficult to identify Ramsgate photos and then it all runs into books, chocolate, skeletons and weird stuff

The day started with breakfast and a bot more painting on my watercolour of Ramsgate Harbour Arches at Ship Shape.

 I skulked around the likely areas and took some photos, here is the link to them for anyone wanting to try and work it out https://goo.gl/photos/d97VicV5HyxawyuU7

Off to Canterbury where I bought some books for my bookshop

A rather bizarre session in the cathedral

I thought this was Becket's Crown, i.e. where his head was kept for pilgrims before Henry VIII had all of Becket's remains destroyed, or possibly they lay in an unmarked grave in the crypt.

With these rather morbid thoughts, some of you may find the photos I took a bit disturbing.

 On to Chocolate Cafe and some more painting

Painting people in Canterbury, the scary side of en plein air

More progress with my watercolour from Chocolate Café in Canterbury today, The Half Crown is for scale although the sheet of paper is just under A4 which may be easier for most people 

It isn’t really possible have one reference picture as you would with a building because people move about, but I hope this one gives you some idea.

Funny sort of day really drove to Canterbury, arrived at Chocolate Café just after 8, the sun was on the table then which made it easy to put the little bit of sky in because of the fast drying of the bits round it.

You can’t get toast and marmalade, so I had toast and jam and tried not to think of 9½ weeks, did sky and surrounding bits – said something stupid to the waitress, I always seem to say something stupid to someone after concentrating on painting, fortunately the staff there are used to this.

Drove to Herne Bay to buy some books. Bought some books for my bookshop.

Drove back to Canterbury, visited the Canterbury bookshops where I bought some books for my bookshop.

Went back to Chocolate Café, sat in the window next to the pavement and painted the people sitting at seats on the pavement directly in front of me, I got some reasonable likenesses, but doing this certainly takes some nerve.    

Rainbow watercolour painting en plein air, in Ramsgate this morning

Ramsgate rainbow painting this morning, not something you expect to get when just going to start doing the sky.

OK I own up I did move it a bit to the right, the thing with watercolour is you can't paint light on dark so rainbows before skies

Canterbury watercolour painting from Chocolate Cafe and ramble

Here is the watercolour painting of La Trappiste Cafe from Chocolate Cafe in Canterbury, well as far as I got during the hour and a half over lunch today.

 Reference/progress photos for any art critics reading this.

Apart from voting and buying a few books for my bookshop I didn't do very much today as the weather was a bit unpredictable.

Don't forget to vote today.

Some watercolour painting in Ramsgate and Margate a bit of work in my bookshop, possible ramble, I’ll see how it goes.

Coffee, toast and marmalade around about eight at Belgian café, I painted and et it for about an hour.

So here is the watercolour painting of Ramsgate Clockhouse.

Next some progress pictures

This is a video of the rowdy group at the next table.

Then off to work, my bookshop opens at 9.30, we priced a lot of books and put them away, see http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-magic-key-in-bookshop.html children’s books are a big thing for us, we try to keep the prices very low and the quality reasonable.

Lunch at Ship Shape and the inevitable watercolour started.

I skived off about three and left the others to look after the shop.

Tea and chocolate cake at Turner Contemporary I am still enjoying the exhibition there, particularly the Waterhouse

While I was eating the cake I had a crack at The Old Kent Market