Has Northdown Road changed in the last few years, Manston Airport related deaths and diseases and Another sketch started in Margate.

The latest bit of Manston Airport DCO, cpo news, see https://theisleofthanetnews.com/a-report-for-the-firm-hoping-to-reopen-manston-airport-as-a-cargo-hub-claims-it-will-create-30000-jobs-in-20-years/ et al, produced the usual flurry of posts on the likely Manston groups.

The source of this news is the press release from whatever RiverOak is calling itself at the moment, here is the link http://www.rsp.co.uk/blog/post/riveroak-strategic-partners-plans-for-manston-set-to-create-almost-30-000-jobs-in-thanet

They seem to be saying that their plans to use CPO powers to get the government to compulsorily purchase it from the current owners, who want to put a mixed housing and light industrial development on the site will employ 3,000 people in Thanet.

The current owners website is http://www.stonehillpark.co.uk/

The document this is based on the Azimuth report vol IV also on the RiverOak website at https://static.secure.website/wscfus/10240501/5744273/manston-airport-a-national-and-regional-aviation-asset-volume-iv-the-social-and-economic-impacts-of-airport-operations.pdf

I think the key quote from this report is “Direct on-site jobs are predicted to be 2,150 by year            5…”

As regular readers will know my main concern over the DCO is that since Manston Airport closed science has moved the goalposts over particulate pollution which is why the government is considering a diesel car scrappage scheme.

Jet engine fuel is much worse than diesel fuel on the particulate pollution front and the minimum requirement for the DCO would appear to involve the premature deaths of at least. 2,000 Thanet people.

I put the following comment on various local FaceBook groups (Save Manston Airport, Manston Pickle, We Love Ramsgate) where the news of the employment figures had been posted: “I think the main problem with any freight hub at Manston will be the recent discoveries about particulate pollution which lead to the government looking at a diesel scrappage scheme. A 747 type freight plane burns a tonne of fuel forr each ground movement and the viable threshold for a freight hub seems to be 10,000 movements a year, which means 10,000 tonnes of jet fuel burnt upwind of Ramsgate and Broadstairs. All the up to date information seems to be saying that this would reduce the life expectancy of thousands of people in both towns, i.e kill them.”

To be honest I was expecting some sort of fuss about this and probably to be removed from some of the groups. What actually happened is that either people agreed with what I said or didn’t say I was wrong.

I went on to add the Los Angeles Airport particulate pollution map with a comment along the lines of “37% increase in lung cancer for every doubling of particulates and LA started out very polluted”

What I was hoping for was that some people would contest my view that building an airfreight hub at Manston would kill at least 2,000 local people.

The two local Conservative MPs appear to be right behind burning 10,000 tonnes of jet fuel upwind of Ramsgate and Broadstairs every year, perhaps they don’t follow local social media.

Next the links to a few hundred pictures I took of Northdown Road in Cliftonville Margate in 2009, this is part of the work I am doing to some of my older webpages that got messed up some time ago and I am now sorting out and putting back on the www.

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad/id3.htm

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad/id4.htm

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad/id5.htm

http://michaelsbookshop.com/northdownroad/id5.htm

This is very much the pictures tell the story of the demise of a major local shopping street,

On to Margate and Turner Contemporary where the main galleries are closed because they are changing over exhibitions, of course if you paint things from life the café there is always one of the best places to do it from if the weather is being British.

finally here is the link to the last lot of books to go on the shelves in the bookshop

Margate in 1904 and today watercolour paining and reflections

My bookshop being closed today as it is Thursday I went bookbuying in Faversham, Herne Bay and Margate, three towns with five secondhand bookshops between them, this type of day which culminated in my winding up painting in Turner Contemporary Art Gallery’s café leaves me thinking that something must be done about the Thanet town centres.

As I sketched a bit more of the view in Margate the news came through that Margate Caves has been awarded a further million plus in funding and will open in 2019. I think part of the problem with Margate town centre, is Turner Contemporary itself, the current exhibition lacks any conventional work of art which could be a draw for conventional people with conventional money. 

By this I mean that when we had – for instance – our Trace displaying sketches of blue women inserting something blue where the sun don’t shine this was offset by having Rodin’s Kiss. There is nothing of the order of The Kiss in the gallery at the moment and the visitor numbers seem very low – apart from the café and the loos that is.

I see in the offing we have Phyllida Barlow, Michael Armitage, I hope these will be crowd pullers, but have my concerns. I also feel that as the gallery is mostly publicly funded with a fair chunk coming out of the council tax there is some responsibility to pull in the crowds, to make the shops work.

The gallery has had a good run recently with Grayson Perry and JWM Turner Adventures in Colour, but they need to keep it up.

All of these following pictures were taken in Margate in 1903 for the the first book with lots of photographic adverts, useful for dating old Margate photos and I recommend you come into my bookshop here in Ramsgate and give it a browse in conjunction with the Margate street directory for that time. If you can’t get to Rmasgate easily here is the link to buy it online http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/margate_and_westgate_with_birchington_1903_04.htm

For the dedicated followers here is the link to the books that went out in my bookshop yesterday http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/mr-benn-in-bookshop.html

Back at Turner Contemporary Margate a bit of sketching and some old pictures of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs.

Another last chance for me to see the JWM Turner exhibition Adventures in Colour for me today, as my family wanted a final look too.

I am coming to the conclusion that the next Turner exhibition at Turner Contemporay really is called is called Liber Studorium as that this translates from the latin as – the stud book with the edge I am looking forward to it with interest. Perhaps there will be more to it than meets the eye. Or perhaps my latin is just very rusty.

I got the best part of two hours in the gallery’s café, the light was amazing and I did a few quick sketches.

There is an atmosphere to art gallery cafés which varies from gallery to gallery and is also dependent on the exhibition showing, in some sense with Turner Contemporary this atmosphere is extenuated, distilled if you like. I think partly because entrance is free, partly because the gallery has no permanent exhibition, partly because the gallery is in Margate and visitors have some strange preconceptions and expectations for Margate and the gallery.

For me also is the fact that looking out of the window the word INFORMATION is written on the end of the Droit House, there is something weird about the word on its own Not perhaps Orwellian but perhaps Kubrickian.

So what? Yes – um well, I am sitting there sketching the people (you understand sketching real people you don’t know is a bit of a scary business, but I think that perhaps this is – what’s the word? I will go with “safest” in a gallery) and looking though, between the people is the word INFORMATION.

So yes a couple of hours trying to catch this atmosphere and mostly failing, words don’t really do it either, but it is a very good place to go and paint.

I was painting in Canterbury Cathedral yesterday, another good place to paint in the winter, much easier to capture too.

For us the holiday are now over so it’s back to work in the bookshop with normal hours from tomorrow, this is basically closed Thursdays and Sunday and open on other days.

On to the old local pictures 

Some old Ramsgate and Margate views and paining from Turner Contemporary café

First the views

I have grouped this card in a way which I hope makes it easier to read, although the past in this instance seem more of foreign country than in most cases.

 1907 view of Margate the church is Holy Trinity consecrated in 1829 after a 5 year build, badly damaged by a bomb in 1943 demolished in 1958

 I had two watercolour sketches on the go from Turner Contemporary Cafe today

 a couple of reference photos here for any aspiring art critics

The main reason I went to Turner Contemporary was to get a final look at the exhibition – JWM Turner Adventures in Colour. This runs for another week the final day being Sunday 8^th January, but I seem to have other commitments during the rest of the time it’s on for.

If you haven’t seen it yet I strongly recommend making the effort during the next week as it’s a very good one.

The next Turner exhibition there is called Liber Studorium on the gallery’s website, vide https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/liber-studorium and starts on the 28^th January, this translates from the latin as – the stud book with the edge.

To begin with I thought this would be an exhibition of Turner’s erotica, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/erotic-art-exhibition-at-turner.html I had hoped that some of the Turners Ruskin allegedly burnt had appeared and there would be a first and possibly only showing in Margate.

However it seems this is to be an exhibition of prints of his work, and as his erotica – bonfire or no bonfire, never made it into being engravings, I am beginning to wonder if the gallery really meant to write Liber Studiorum which translates as – studies book.

Anyway it’s either a book of sharp studs or a book of studies and as I am in the book business I will have to look into this one.

As you can see we are running wild in the bookshop http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/running-wild-in-bookshop.html

Some painting around Ramsgate Margate and Canterbury

Saturday, yesterday that is, I had some bookshop business in Margate which I decided to combine with a bit of painting, as most of you know I don’t paint much from photographs and mostly paint from life. Up to now this painting has been with watercolour paint and paper.

This is mainly because the whole kit goes in my pocket, with this type of painting really any small paintbox, some brushes and a pad will do. The really important thing is not to make things to complicated, by this I mean, stick to the same type of pad so you gradually get to know what will happen when you put paint on that particular paper, stick to the same make of paint, I squeeze tubes of watercolour paint into the segments of the paintbox and in the winter I put it on the radiator and in the summer I put it in the sun until the paint has gone hard. I have a limited number of brushes and know what to expect when I use them, I also use a natural sponge.

You can throw money at this, I use expensive sable brushes called Winsor and Newton number 7s, I use Winsor and Newton artist’s quality paint, I think the paint is averagely around £12 for a big tube and I get through about 2 tubes a year. I think the brushes are also averagely around £12 and none of these have worn out or gone wrong yet. 

I didn’t have painting lessons or look at instructional videos, but just sort of got on with it, mainly because I want to develop my own style and with watercolour this now is just putting paint onto blank paper, which often just doesn’t work out very well.

Anyway I have decided to have a go with oil paint and canvas, the equipment for this is much more difficult to cart about.

You have a palate, which you squirt the paint onto and mix the paint on, you need to be able to cart this about without the paint side touching anything. When you have painted or part painted a canvas it takes ages to dry, so you also have to be able to cart this about without it touching anything. The main problem though is the Paddington Bear effect in which the paint behaves like marmalade, it gets on your hands, then you get an itch on your nose or in your hair so it gets there.

At the moment I am mainly practicing the carting about, but I have discovered that the oil equipment, French easel and shopping trolley with a folding seat also doubles as a portable table and chair meaning I can paint watercolour anywhere.

Here are the photos from the last two days.

If one of your children has tried out your paints the only thing to do with the palate is to sandpaer the paint off.

some thoughts on this Margate mission

Take a screwdriver that fits the screws that hold the French easel together.

Don’t pour linseed oil into the dipper, but use it straight from the pot as cleaning out the pot enough to put it away afterwards is tricky.

Take a pair of pliers to open difficult tubes or free up all the tube caps before you go.

Lay the cloth you intend to use for brush cleaning out rolled into a tube on the easel drawer and don’t touch the cloth with your hands, by dipping and then dabbing the brushes on it I managed to avoid getting paint on my hands.

Take some bulldog clips and some kitchen towel.

Some Thoughts on this Ramsgate mission.

I bought a £2.99 groundsheet from Wilkinson's as I didn't want to get sand on everything, it also stops the easel and chair from sinking into the sand.

If you are going to sit painting for an hour or so I recommend a blow up cushion from the £1 shop.

The bungee held down the watercolour box and brush roll stopping it from being blown into the sand.

At this point I was ready to have a go with the oil paints, but my children had had enough and wanted to go shopping in Canterbury.

A bit more practice before i have the nerve to oil paint in the middle of Canterbury.