Vincent Ramsgate pictures also featuring Margate and Broadstairs

I had to get a groanup to go out and take the unveiling pictures, but did listen to Starry Starr Night while eating my American Pie.

I did the same old with the photos, camera lazily copied some postcards off the heap with the camera too and although they will expand here if you just click on them, the versions on the end of today's camera roll may get even bigger.

Here is the link to today's camera Roll

Apart from the business with the ear Vincent Van Gogh  produced two sketches of Ramsgate

of the Van Gogh pup aka Churchill's aka Paragon Hotel

There is a spot the difference aspect to art

 See what I mean

A letter from Van Gogh’s doctor, Felix Rey

I don't think I have a future as an art historian, I will try a metamorphosis toward old local pitchers

  An Hotel, a hotel, a 'otel, an 'otel, complex stuff.

 I have been out sketching today, so spot the difference, of course I am not exactly an artist, more of a painter with optical delusions.

Ramsgate's answer to Turner and Tracey

As the new Turner centre plans have been revealed I thought it appropriate to feature Bob Simmonds book Ramsgate's answer to Turner and Tracey if it interests you click here for some of the books content.

The publicity and controversy generated by the proposed Turner Centre at Margate, and the recent book and film about Tracey Emin's childhood there, have given the impression that these are the only famous artists ever to have lived in Thanet. This book attempts to correct this by looking at the many artistic, creative and significant people who have lived in the neighbouring town of Ramsgate.

The first chapter provides information about the local connections of a whole range of people - from Saint Augustine to Jackie 'Mr. TV' Pallo and from Karl Marx to Frank Muir - with lengthy looks at Queen Victoria's childhood visits and the holiday stays of Marx and Engels.

The significant local figure of Sir William Curtis, his relationship with George IV, and his influential role in the transportation of convicts to Australia, is then examined, with new research from Australia which casts the great Baronet in a less than favourable light.

A chapter is devoted to each of the more well-known artists who have worked in Ramsgate, including William Frith, James Tissot, Vincent Van Gough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the Pugins - with reproductions of their local pictures where possible, and a humorous modern-day version where not.

The architectural remains of the fishing industry, and of the army's presence in the town during the Napoleonic wars, provide an insight into these two periods, and extracts from the letters of an army officer's wife give an interesting glimpse into the social whirl that made Ramsgate very fashionable at that time.

A stroll along the eastern cliff is provided in order to look at places where other notable people have lived whilst in the town. These include Albion Place (visited by Queen Victoria and Jane Austen), Wellington Crescent and the Plains of Waterloo (Coleridge, Marx, Frith, Collins), the site of Truro Lodge (Professor Samuel Vince FRS), the Granville and San Clu Hotels (various), and East Lodge (Queen Caroline, Lord Keith, Duke of Wellington, Moses Montefiore etc,), and the latter's mausoleum and synagogue.

The book ends with details of other books, websites and organisations that can provide more information about the characters mentioned.