A bit more colour on one of the Ramsgate watercolours and a couple of fairly naff drawings of Broadstairs

I slapped a bit more paint on this sketch from outside Miles over toast and marmalade and then the cloud came over. As I could see clear skies over Broadstairs

I went there, the cloud caught up and so I had a cuppa in Costa and sketched Albion Hotel, which as you see didn't go well.

the sun soon came out again so I went to the Pavilion for lunch but once again the drawing was a bit naff

I toyed with putting some colour on it, decided to jack it in and do some work in my bookshop, one of those days.

I am sort of psyching myself up to going out with my oil paints.

A bit more paint on a Ramsgate sketch

I managed to get out for an hour this afternoon and spodge a bit of paint onto my sketch of the view from Coffee Shack in Harbour Parade

You can see from this photo for aspiring art critics that thing have gone a bot tall at the botom of the painting, time for the scissors perhaps.

 All go down there on the demolition front, although I think it was the crown of foreign students that surrounded me while I was painting. Young pipple too noisy and happy.

Carl Hawkins at The York Street Gallery in Ramsgate

The current Exhibition  is by Broadstairs based artist Carl Hawkins. A selection of various media - Titled  "Coast".  The exhibition runs   23rd September - 30th September Exhibitions change weekly on Wednesdays.

Midweek Ramble

The main problem with any sort of news blogging is that you can often wind up getting it wrong. An example of what I mean is last Friday’s Gazette lead saying that the date the Dreamland rollercoaster is to reopen would be announced on Monday and then Monday comes and goes without an announcement.

Work is going on apace demolishing the old slipway buildings here in Ramsgate, this is due to finished for next summer, with a home for The Hornby Visitor Centre, a new slipways workshop with the two slipways that were working back in operation.

Wetherspoons are due to start work on The Pavilion in January and this should also be open for next summer.

The Ramsgate Society is due to move into The Maritime Museum for the winter, when the museum closes next week. The society will only use the entrance foyer and the museum will close for the winter. 

Port Ramsgate seems to be running at a loss, which is costing TDC about £1m per year and for the most part only seems to facilitate live animal exports and I guess most people will be aware of the news articles about it becoming a passenger port again.

With Dover not running at full capacity and the route to the continent from Ramsgate being much more expensive to run as it is a least double the distance this would seem an unlikely one.

The Manston airport cpo is still looking like a dead duck with Nigel UKIP Farage saying again on the BBC today that any indemnity partner the council chooses must be watertight, a phrase that seems unlikely to apply to a small American property hedgefund broker operating from a rented office.

The new tdc UKIP administration is now reduced to a majority of one with Chris Wells the ex Tory cabinet member who is now the UKIP leader saying that he was pleased to shed the UKIP members who disagreed with him.

Whether the UKIP administration has had any achievements and are maintaining a position where they stand a cat in hell’s chance of getting re-elected is a bit of a moot point, but is looking increasingly unlikely.

I have been bookbuying and sketching in Canterbury today, I guess if you have been keeping an eye on the bookshop blog http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/ which shows the books going on the shelves on a daily basis you will see we have been very busy.

The first bit of sketching was from La Trappiste where I added a bit to the sketch I have been doing from there while I waited for the rain to clear up.

Toast and marmalade there forms a more substantial breakfast than I am used to.

Having bought a load of books I went to for lunch at Wetherspoons and a crack at the Westgate Towers again, it was going a bit better when time ran out.

Yesterday I skived off twice did a bit more to my sketch from Miles

and  a bit more to the one from the coffee shack on Harbour Parade, I am running out of summer and looking for an old camper van so I can get out and sketch in the winter. I sold my 70s Bedford with heater, toilet and coffee making facilities about 3 years ago on ebay for about £600 and am now wishing I hadn’t.  

Margate in 1950

Two new Margate books published today, a reminder here that my bookshop in Ramsgate is closed on Thursdays and as nowhere else has any stock of them rushing over to Ramsgate to buy them is best not done tomorrow.

The books are the Margate Street Directory and the Margate Business and Private Residents Directory, both published with kind permission of Kellys Directories and obviously compiled in 1950.

These directories are the bread and butter of local history, walk one of our towns with the street directory for 1900 or 1950 and you are transported back in time. Accurate listings of all the shops, pubs etc is vital for an understanding of the area. Being able to find the addresses of everyone living in the town then is also very useful.    

Both books are available from our website at

http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/margate_street_directory_1951.htm

and

http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/margate_private_resisdents_directory_for_1951.htm

New book on The Royal in Ramsgate

I assume everyone in Ramsgate is familiar with The Royal, or at least thinks they are. This new book, (A5 16 pages priced at £2) "The Royal, Ramsgate (The King's Head Inn) 1665-2015" is co-authored by Benedict Kelly, who wrote the two books about The Ganville and Gerald Tripp, who is our expert on history of the Eastcliff. 

This book was sponsored by the Mayor of Ramsgate Trevor Shonk and includes material from Trevor's archives.

All in all an informative read and a useful inexpensive present for anyone interested in Ramsgate history.

This book is available from my bookshop in Ramsgate and from The Royal public house.

Paul Mitchell and Nina Shilling at Bohemi Art Gallery Ramsgate Harbour Arches

Exhibition runs until Friday

More sketching today in Ramsgate

This one from This one from Miles Bar Café Culture but looking in the opposite direction to the one I did yesterday, the sun got me in the end, you just can't paint with the sun in your eyes. I will try to get back and finish it off.

 The drawing is a bit complicated from this view, The Royal Sailors Rest having so many twiddly bits.

The last time I painted this view was from The Oak Hotel earlier in the summer when it was covered up by scaffolding.

anyway I started another one from Coffee Shack

some interesting angles from the drawing point of view here