Click to expand, pictures of Broadstairs, Margate, Ramsgate and an optical illusion from the bookshop in Ramsgate

 

Aerial photo of Broadstairs probably early to mid 50s

Tug Aid in Ramsgate Harbour

Tug Vulcan in Ramsgate Harbour

Dent De Lion Gatehouse

 Pier Hotel Margate Advert

Unknown location probably north Thanet

The next bit of this blog post is about me drawing an optical illusion and how the inspiration came. This is mostly me talking to a future me for my reference, but also people ask about these things.

I was looking drawings by Salvador Dali, on my phone, in bed, Sunday morning (yesterday) and felt there was something about the shapes in this one that was worth further investigation.

Nostalgic Echo Dali

The Nostalgic Echo (1935) by Salvador Dali  illustration for the frontispiece of the book Nuits Partagees (Shared Nights), poems by Paul Éluard.

So I sketched this 

Which developed into this impossible object, instead of three dimensions it has four or five, I think. What do you think?

As you probably know I work at Michaels Bookshop in Ramsgate so the next stage was to represent my impossible object as a book.

Optical Illusion Drawing of a Book

Here is the result, I think this will be the draft for a painting. I think that as optical illusions go this one is to some extent original to me. This is fairly unusual with pen and paper optical illusions, so I am pleased about it.  

Here where I work at Michaels Bookshop we have more newly acquired secondhand books here is the link to the pictures of them 

Pushing perspective with watercolour in Canterbury

They say “the camera never lies” although I think it is much more along the lines of. What – er, what do I think? A bit hard to nail but something along the lines of our brains have got very good at decoding photographs and particularly photographic images on screens. You can’t – for instance photograph the inside of a mask so that people without schizophrenia can see it’s the inside of a mask. Why? Our minds decode faces in a certain way.

You see, unless you are a schizophrenic – apparently, what you brain tells you is there and not what is actually there, although you brain knows or perhaps even when your brain knows that it’s wrong.

From where I was sitting sketching in Chocolate Café in Canterbury the mask on the window, dominates the view in a photograph.

However actually sitting at the table painting, what you actually see depends on where you are looking, and yet there is potential – in doing this – to make something which is what? An optical illusion, an artistic error, I don’t know really.  

Anyway a sketch of Canterbury that I will endeavour to finish off, if I get the chance.   

A guest post from Flat Eric

Hi there, Bloggers from F. E. I have been working at the keyboard called Oliver in Michael’s study today, Michael says Oliver is William Burroughs grandfather, but he was eating his lunch in the altogether - no fur!

Michael went out early this morning to paint the house for the clockworks he said something about knowing too much about a building to be able to draw it and being too tired to engage with the internet. (Harbour Clock house. 1817. Design by Benjamen Wyatt and George Louch, altered by John Rennie. Ashlar with slate roof. Two storeys, with segmental 3 bay arcades to ground floor wings, plat band, cornice and parapet, with stacks to end left and end right. Central projecting tower with 2 storey arched opening, the band acting as imposts. Triglyph frieze and cornice to hipped roof with square clock turret with dentil cornice and open arcaded and balustraded belfry with weather vane. Three metal casements to each wing and central Diocletian window on 1st floor, tripartite glazing bar sashes on ground floor. Central panelled door and sidelights in round-headed surround. Boarded 2 storey doors in end elevations. Rear elevation identical to front, but without central Diocletian window. Interior: fine, simple interiors with trussed rafter roofs. Originally fitted with brass solar meridian line, stolen mid 1970's. Stone domed clock room in central tower. The changing upper floor levels indicate that Wyatt's original design was for single storey wings - Rennie added the upper floors.) accreditation Newman and Busson.

Flat's tip of the day, click on the picture to make it bigger, then click on the bigger picture to make it even bigger, then move the picture up and down with the little wheel on your mouse, while looking at the guitar strings.

Anyway this blogging lark is too much like hard work so I am relaxing by playing a bit of music on the guitar.

The dreams of a small fish in Ramsgate Harbour

Confusion isn't a strong enough word here one moment, I was happily swimming around in some sort of big pond looking for the way back out to sea, the next I am on a plate, wondering what a plate is, suddenly light and a door in the distance and there's this bloke with some keys saying that I have been a reasonably good sole, and what do I fancy on the reincarnation front.

Then there is a lot of mumbling about typos and lists, someone says. "If the books don’t balance it's more than my jobs worth come the day of judgment, what about the bloke next to him. Mumble mumble.. put a rude picture on facebook last night… giving the council a hard time.. swore at a seagull… time to have his soul in purgatory, teach him a lesson."

Next thing I know I'm drawing a chimneystack, eating my old body in some amazing Italian sauce and explaining how pattress plates stop buildings fall outwards to a couple of teenagers.

Every so often I get a funny feeling and have to look at the sea for a bit.

Really it's a very good thing I didn’t have to drive the car to the bookshop in Ramsgate, fish don’t usually go to bed, although there is some sort of mythology about the great piscisophile with the rubber sheets, wearing a snorkel and flippers, generally known as, He Who Is Best Avoided.

Wonderful dreams about the shimmering ocean, then along comes a damned great shark and I jump out of bed for obvious reasons, put on my flippers, have a shower and the next thing I know, I'm painting pub window frames and talking about quantum physics to a windfarmer, who is mostly interested in the Hassidic influences pertaining to World War One.          

Stonehenge Decoded and other aspects of a Friday blog ramble

In the 1960s when I first visited Stonehenge as a teenager the basic plan was to insert tab A into slot B and try to comprehend some of the deep and meaningless aspects of the stones, whilst also trying to stop the top of ones head from unscrewing.

Anyway provoked by the enquiring minds of the youf of today I revisited the fundamental questions about Stonehenge. What does it do? and how does it do it?

Pretty obviously what happens is that the druid enters the stone circle between two stones and exits between another two into a different reality, I seem to remember at some time in the 60s there was a sign there saying “Do Not Adjust Your Mind, Reality Is At Fault” or something.  

How it does this is a bit difficult to put into words that will bridge the age gap, and drawing a diagram seemed to be a bit condescending, so I painted them a picture.

I thought I would start with a smaller henge with less stones, I have been putting off painting one with more stones as I get the feeling that something strange may happen.

One of the youf of today asked if it is an optical illusion, to which I answered, just a stone circle with all of the stones around the same size. Some measuring then followed and I was informed that that the upright one on the far right is much shorter, so it is an illusion. 

Always useful to the budding artist to encounter the aspiring art critic.

The life of the modern independent retailer is a tricky one, although to be honest that of the secondhand bookseller has always been somewhat tenuous. Despite wearing the uniform (socks and sandals) at 59 I haven’t yet managed to aspire to the dizzy heights of carpet slippers, but gather there will eventually be some sort of secret initiation ceremony involving the retriever of no returns. Despite maintaining a shop with a permanent look of “out to lunch”. I find I am still encountering customers and sometimes difficult customers.

In this case it was a lady who brought back a book of spells complaining that her broom wouldn’t fly; a refund, well obviously made that strange sucking noise between the teeth, always an indicator that something expensive is about to happen.

Anyway in this instance I withheld the ultimate retailer’s weapon (calling her madam) and explained that I had been selling spell books, man and boy for the last fifty years and no one had ever brought one back complaining that the spells didn’t work.

Unfortunately this approach failed, I have been threatened with no less that the trades descriptions act of 1968 and had to issue a refund of £2.50. In some ways this is quite a relief as the book in question is now safely back where it belongs.

 I have added a picture so you can share my relief that the book is now safely back on the shelf in my bookshop after its difficult and unsuccessful adventure.

While on the subject of not flying, since Ann Gloag (who in no way looks like a witch) pulled the magic carpet from under Manston, rumour has been flying round the world. One is that KLM were not actually having a public display of sour grapes but that when Boet Kreiken said. “Now it is game over; we will redeploy the aircraft. We are gone.” This was actually a euphemism for it just wasn’t profitable to run a passenger service from Manson.

Apparently Charles Buchanan has been seen standing on the not inconsiderable coastline of the Thanet transport hub brandishing a model aeroplane and extolling fish to buy airline tickets.  

Another rumour is that the big guns of the local Conservative party have found that the solution to not enough passengers is no passengers and are trying to broker a deal for a huge freight only hub at Manston.  

In the circumstances it may be as well that Ramsgate Sandys is going apparently there has been something of a Gale there over potential freight night flights as apparently magic mushrooms can only be moved at night.

No ramble would be complete without some reference to our own dear councils so I will drop the broomstick and concentrate on the legal highs for a while. At the moment socialist run TDC is working on the disposal of the last remaining high profile council owned Ramsgate building. As good socialists their master plan is to hand it to the largest capitalist they can find. I am told there will be no payment to TDC for the very long peppercorn rent apart from half the rental return on putting a farmers market – as far from the main car parks as possible – in the third of the building that isn’t to become the largest pub in Europe.

What we need here is the TDC Margate Tories to apply the magic solution of grant funding to turn it into the largest public venue in Ramsgate and if that fails the Kent Tories to use a good old fashioned socialist inspired subsidy, like the have with Turner Contemporary.

As things are looking once copious quantities of legal high have been imbibed and the customers have become naughtily inebriate, they will make their way past the bouncers and the regular policing on Harbour Parade to the takeaways in King Street where there is no apparent policing.

The council have licensed these until four in the morning so the worst of the political offenders – who are made to live there in social housing on the ground floor next to the street – will get no sleep whatsoever and are likely to step in an amusing pool of beer and kebab if they do venture out.  

Of course the council have just compulsorily purchased the huge old carpet shop there, but I guess this would be deemed as being far to close to the car park to be suitable for an indoor and farmers market.

Summer being just around the corner and yesterday being my day off, I decided to unfold our folding caravan, which has become a bit retro, by accident rather than design. I thought I had better check everything was ok before unfolding it at a campsite.

The instruction book says that one person can put it up in about 5 mins, it takes two of us about 10 but still amuses people at a campsite so here are the unfolding pictures.  

            
Now for some photos from the last few days I will endeavour to add some text to them if I get the time. 

Market day in Ramsgate today, something that has a place for all budgets

I tend to go for the Rooks meat or cheese and salad with salad roll, which is very good value at £1.99

As you may know with these rambles, I will add to it if I get time, it’s market day today and my bookshop is fairly busy, at this very moment I am dealing with a trades description issue relating to a lady who bought a book out of the occult section which has failed to make her broom fly.