Wednesday, 29 July 2015

I'm still Painting in the Ramsgate Clockworks with not much to say.

As it is the middle of summer it is possible to paint and draw before work, so at this time of year I get up at about 5am so I can start painting around six. I don't really think I would be able to pull this off without The Oak Hotel, where you can get coffee a comfortable seat and a good view with the sun roughly behind you from about six.

My early morning painting isn't very concentrated, much of the time being spent talking wind farmers and others who have to be up early. This tends to result in strange rather obsessive paintings where I have experimented with different effects while waking up.


This painting of Ramsgate Clockhouse has been going on outside The Oak on most mornings for about two weeks now. The latest thing is that having bought most powerful reading glasses, I have been putting on fine detail, if you click on the picture it will expand and then if you click on it again it will get considerably bigger than the original.  


My bookshop is now in the busiest part of the year, with lots of books coming and going on a daily basis, if you have a look at the bookshop blog http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/ you can see what I mean. This means that I don’t have much time for blogging, which I guess fits quite well with not newsworthy much happening locally at the moment. A glance at the agenda for tomorrow's TDC cabinet meeting http://democracy.thanet.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=151&MId=4047 sums up the lack of activity out to lunch. 

Monday, 27 July 2015

Jackie Trinder at The York Street Gallery in Ramsgate

The current Exhibition  is an Exhibition is by Kent Artist and Watercolourist Jackie Trinder The exhibition runs  22nd July - 29th July Exhibitions change weekly on Wednesdays.








Sunday, 26 July 2015

Margate Blowout Closes Dreamland but fortunately not the roller rink, a quick sketch of the Flatiron from Bentley’s in Margate

Here is the watercolour and pen sketch of the flatiron in Margate from Bentley's
A photo for aspiring art critics

A picture of me painting it.
A very pleasant afternoon rollerskating at dreamland, with a break for a civilised tea in Bentley's, one solution for a wet sunday afternoon.

here are the books I bought for my bookshop in Margate today  

Dreamland suffered from bad wind last night and was closed today, as it was far too wet for funfairs this wasn't a major issue.

The art of filming with a mobile phone while rollerskating is something I am yet to perfect, but this may give you some idea of what it's like on the rink there.



Saturday, 25 July 2015

Drawing and painting Canterbury, the maids and men of Kent, the Kentish men and maids, some thought about the invention of perspective, a few books for my bookshop, Flat Eric plays guitar with a tactless cactus and some thoughts on the value of music and art.

Starting with this pen and ink sketch of the inside of Canterbury Cathedral and working backwards and forwards in time, I will do my best to write some sort of blog post today.

My apologies for not posting for the last couple of days, I have been getting up early for my daubing activities and just haven't had time.

I started in the cathedral at 7am this morning and did the pen bit, unfortunately I had parked myself in part of the cathedral where some intensive god bothering was going on and what with that and not having had any breakfast. OK to put it another way, it felt as though with the act of drawing the cathedral I had developed some sort of empathy with the building, and that it wanted sung matins and was uncomfortable with anything else at 7am and that its being uncomfortable made me so.

So I meandered of to La Trappiste where, as I am getting fat, I had a very modest breakfast of toast and marmalade, surrounded by thin people eating the Full English. Narniaistically I drew a lamppost.

Back to the cathedral for a bit more daubing.

On to Canteen to try and draw the view looking down onto the street from above, as you can see this is something that I can't do very well.

The camera is better at this sort of thing I think.

Back to the cathedral to slap some paint on.

Back to La Trappiste for a cuppa and to bung some stuff around the lamppost.


I have started drawing real live people that I don’t know in public, a scary business, these maids of somewhere or anotherish maids, seemed fairly happy about this, and I guess if I were single and 45 years younger I would have tried for the full Clockwork Orange, or at least a bit of a boogie.


Recently several people have asked if I sell my daubings, so I have been thinking about this and don’t really know the answer, price, the value and so on, I guess the answer is I will get around to getting some prints done, some framing done, and even produce a few greeting cards.
 Anyway with this rolling around in the back of my mind, I sketched a couple of buskers that I stopped and listened to in Canters, and instead of putting my small change in their hats, I chucked the sketch in their hats.

Floyd Rose guitar tremolo, double locking wosisnames are one aspect of guitar maintenance that I leave to the expert (the one in the middle) who in this case is Luke aka Barry, who runs the guitar shop in St Luke’s Avenue and used be an Animal in The Rising Sun sense of the word. So when I went to pick up my Washburn I mentioned the business of getting paid for art to Barry, and showed him the photo of the sketch of the banjoist. Barry like most drummers, didn’t waste time replying my semantics, but looked at the photo of the sketch on my phone, and says. “I know ‘im he buys strings and stuff off me.”     
Flat Eric has discovered that the low action and the amplification is such that he can now do the tactless cactus song with furry hands. The lyrics are loosely based on Geoff Chaucer’s, “Wife of Bath” tale, only it’s a cactus not a red hot poker that features.




I did buy some books for my bookshop and a couple of records that I didn't have, who would have thought I could have got through life so far without having Johnny Cash doing them old cottonfields, while having umpteen versions of pick a bale day? 

Afew photos of Canterbury, showing that perspective hadn't been invented 800 years ago and so on




















 


Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Painting The Royal Albion Hotel in Broadstairs and The Sands Lift in Ramsgate

I started a new pen and watercolour sketch of The Royal Albion Hotel in Broadstairs this morning. 

 one for the art critics
 as you can't paint light on dark with watercolour bits like the writing on the sign have to be painted first and the the dark sign painted around the writing.

 I think I will have to consider more powerful reading glasses.

I had lunch at Candy's aka Tops and did a quick sketch of the lift while I was there

I guess the lift will look a little less uncomfortable when I have gone back and sketched in the cliff and the hou8ses next to it.

Why so much deeper than wide? I sketched the front first and then the writing on the side saying "Lift" a word that proved longer than expected.