Two pen and watercolour sketches in Canterbury of The Beaney and St Mary Magdalene.

Here is the pen and watercolour sketch of The Beaney House Of Art & Knowledge from The County Hotel, well actually I think it’s now called ABode

and here is the sketch of St Mary Magdalene from Elsie Mo’s, well actually only the tower of St Mary Magdalene which was built in 1503 the rest of the church was pulled down in 1871 ‘cause it wos a derry.

As you can see a tricky view from Elsie Mo's due to the acute angle and the windows, I think about two hours sketching on this one.

the smallest meal I could find there, Cowgirl Burger £8.95 + coffee £2.20 very good, but too much food for a weekday lunch (I am trying to get thinner after Christmas) my wife had toast and jam £1 and a $5 shake which was £5.

Here is the view of The Beaney from, The County, which I think has even been The Michael Cain and named after one of the celebrity cooks, my cup of coffee (very good) there was over £3, as the parking was running out I only got about an hour sketching, so will endeavour to return and finish it off.

We also bought quite a lot of books for my bookshop in Ramsgate, so a fairly busy day off.

Anyway here is a question for blog readers, if you find a restaurant or café with a view that will stand a sketch or two in this area (East Kent) can you please let me know? 

What do you say when there isn't much to blog about?

Much nicer day today, especially around lunchtime

 looking over my shoulder I meandered off to The Belgian fof a cuppa and a sarni

a restorative and money well spent

the inevitable sketch and the hour past fast

Pleasurama cliff wall has just sprouted the first shoots of greenery after being painted with the wrong paint, or whatever happened

quite a lot more sand has gone from Ramsgate main sands

The Pav is still looking very sad

the old slipways winch house or whatever it is, much more visible

Back in the bookshop, a quiet day, usually is just after the schools go back, no blog post for the bookshop today http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/ however I learnt a lot about Ebay.

Having a bookshop I don’t sell many books on the internet, in most cases the rule is something like this:- buy it, try it on the shelves in the bookshop for about a year, if it hasn’t sold then review it. Then the rule is something like this:- reduce the price, stick it on Amazon. One way or another try to get back at least what I paid for it and buy a different book.

Every so often though it’s my job to check out the options and today it’s been working out the logistics and economics of putting books I no longer want for stock in the bookshop on Ebay.

Winter Exhibition at Lombard St Gallery Margate photos.

This exhibition runs until 28^th February 2016

Dreamland Zoo Margate Photos from 1977

Photos courtesy of Derek Mollett who managed the zoo in 1977.

 

Ed. For me this is one of those, does anyone remember, things, I worked at Dreamland at some time in the early 70s and put up a post back in 2008 about walking (exercising in the early hours of the morning)  the zoo lions on the beach in the 70s.

Back in 1970somethingoranother, who knows, the early 70s for me are a bit like the 60s are supposed to be inasmuch as I was there, but don’t remember much about it.

The funfairs I worked for then have all rather merged into one and as I worked for Chipperfieds, where lions were involved too, I thought I had probably imagined them in Margate.

I am pretty sure the chap running the zoo was an Australian when I was there, so not Derek.

Pen and watercolour of Ramsgate from The Royal Harbour Brasserie

Being New Years Day and some family and friends felling a little frail after New Years Eve we headed of to Royal Harbour Brasserie which is on the end one of the curved stone piers that form Ramsgate Harbour.

This was a late breakfast, I think about 1.30 in the afternoon and very good it was too.

Including a vegetarian breakfast option.

The Royal Harbour Brasserie was understandably very busy indeed.

The best view of Ramsgate in January, with the sun shining more like a short holiday to sunnier climes.

The houses on the cliff top in the distance are about 600 yards away from the café, and I didn’t think I could paint that small, so I sketched it with a thin pen first. An India Ink felt tip, this one being a Uni Pin Fineliner Pen 0.05mm, doesn’t smudge like a pencil would when you paint over it.

I figured that this part completed picture would interest some people, the pencil is there just for scale so you can see the size, I work from top left to bottom right and put the watercolour on in thin layers, so the trees have about four layers of paint on them and are just starting to get a bit three dimensional.

Time wise there is about two and half hours painting and drawing in the picture so far, I don’t normally paint or draw from photos, so this one won’t get finished off until I get back there.

New Year Fireworks at Ramsgate

Here are the pictures of the 2016 midnight firework display from Ramsgate Harbour, they will expand if clicked on – probably.

It is a case of one dreadful and aging photographer takes snapshots with shaking hand, I should have arrived at the clifftop with camera tripod and an array of equipment; but you know how it is. Don’t you?

I suppose getting amazing sharp pictures of fireworks is pretty pointless as the internet is overflowing with ones taken by better photographers with better equipment, or at least equipment where they have read the instruction manual and the need for reading glasses doesn’t mean that they can’t actually see the controls.