New Drawings

I've been sorting through sketch books and drawing recently.

There is something quite satisfying about a simple line drawing, I often do them in ink.
I might use these as reference for other works or colour them in some way, but at the moment I like them as simple lines.

Some taken from my Venice holiday images and two Buddha heads.

Ramsgate Harbour illuminated boats.

Ramsgate Royal Harbour has become one of the Christmas highlights in Thanet, with more of the boats illuminated for the festival this year.

Lots of people are visiting and taking photographs  of the over 40 boats taking part and the press has been down interested in this more unusual Christmas event.

This annual event is now in its third year and is organized by the Royal Temple Yacht Club and Ramsgate Marina Association and runs till January.

Boats taking part will be judged for the best dressed competition in a number of categories.

Margate Seascapes and Sketches

 

I've been down to the sea front and harbour, taking photographs and doing some sketches.
The colours in the sea have been beautiful this week.

I've been using up paint from my palette to cover some of my sketchbook pages with tones of blue and using white pen to draw on top of it. I've also been following the contours of the waves in my drawings and water colour sketches.

I like the effect of this and will paint a few more sheets with different shades of blue to work on.

Oyster Festival at Whitstable

Whitstable's annual Oyster Festival opened last weekend with the Landing of the Oysters  and their blessing by the  Rev Simon Tillotson from St Peters Church, the seafarers church in Whitstable, which recocnizes St. James of Compostela, the patron saint of Oystermen.

Many thousands of people come to the festival which has a week long programme of events. Festival website here

The tide was in for the landing of the oysters and I was struck by how close the various boats were to the shore. I also had a sense of how lovely it must be  for all the children and youngsters in boats enjoying themselves.

After the blessing of the oysters the cart and clergy and dignitaries joined the parade through the town.  Some great paper mache heads and fish and the two giant figures along with a wonderful steam punkish  metal crustacean vehicle.

Along the harbour were hundreds of stalls, most with food and drink for all the crowds. There were the longest ques at the oyster stalls, which seems right as it was an oyster festival. 

It was very busy  and very hot, I needed to cool off in the small areas of shade  every so often.
But I enjoyed the atmosphere, the parade and seeing the landing of the oysters.

Exhibition at the Show Off Gallery Whitstable and photos of Whitstable.

I've been over to Whitstable to see friends of mine, Marcus Browne and Matthew Usmar Lauder's show. It was held in the Show Off Gallery in the town near the harbour.

A really good show of work including landscapes, fish still lives and icon type portraits and figures, some in decorated boxes.Matthew's website here

I really enjoyed seeing the work and meeting up with them, the work is also on display online.Check out Matthew's facebook page.

Walking around the harbour I took a few photographs and did a bit of beachcombing, one of my favourite activities and justifiable living near the coast now. Some of the shells and stones will be used in future projects.

I was interested to see that there were piles of oyster shells for recycling back to the oyster beds(.Whitstable is famous for its oysters)
  Apparantly it helps the young  oysters, who find the shells one of the best surfaces to attatch themselves to. And it stops the erosion of the oyster beds.

Diamond Jubilee Pageant

Earlier in the month I went down to the Thames to see and photograph the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant. ( I'm just catching up with processing the  photographs)
It was already crowded when we got there at about 12.30. People had been waiting near Millbank pier, where we ended up, since 6am. It was cold and wet, the news has reported quite a lot of cases of hypothermia on the day. My sister and I stood near one of the gangways to the pier with a number of people dressed in party outfits, they were waiting to board one of the boats on the Thames.

We had a coach with police inside, parked next to the pavement at our backs, which actually kept off some of the wind and pressure from the crowds. Lots of crowd control guys were milling up and down the gangway all the time, but there were no problems. The only action being people climbing on the tree next to us, the crowd control guys tried to get them down, with most of the crowd booing and saying shame, leave them alone! Some came down some got back up.

I managed to get fairly close to the wall to see the pageant, though some shots were taken with my camera held up high. As the pageant slowed down and the rain got heavier, some of the people left and we got right to the front. With all the rain and low light and holding the camera high up, it was pretty tricky to get many good images.

The floating Bellfry leading the pageant.

I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the crowds, though there was no singing along our section, The mobile bellfry with the special bells cast at the Whitechapel foundry, was good to hear coming at the head of the procession and the musical boats were an important addition I think.

Dragon boats.

Sea Cadets carrying the flags of the Commonwealth.

 The manned boat section and the working boats I enjoyed the most overall. Though I felt sorry for any of the boats following the fire boat spraying tons of water as it sailed along. It was bad enough having the rain.

The Fire Flash a London Fire Brigade Fire boat.

The Royal Barge The Spirit of Chartwell.

Inspired by the Queen's hats.

A new use for tesco carrier bags,waiting in the rain for the pageant to start.

Getting home was as difficult as it has been reported and all of us caught up in that were asking how London was going to cope with the Olympics. I can't help but wonder how different it would have been in the sunshine. Was it a big mistake to leave a roof off the Olympic Stadium?

Lyme Regis

Ruth and I went down to Lyme Regis for a few days, the weather was a mixture of strong winds, sun and clouds. We went on one of the fossil walks and found lots of fossils, mostly pieces but one good dinosaur vertibrae too. There was a tiny aquarium on in the harbour and these pipe fish moving in a graceful dance.

I love the sea air and the expanse of sea and sky, the sea is a real turqouise colour too.There is a great little harbour and boats and the cobb, which we walked along out in the sea. We took photos, did some sketching and enjoyed the fresh salty air.

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Leigh on Sea and Southend

I went recently for a traditional seaside day out, starting at Leigh on Sea and walking along the sea front towards Southend. Interestingly for those of us who don't know, Leigh on Sea train station isn't next to the town, I always forget this sort of thing, that train stations can be a way out of towns. However the walk along the sea by all the boat yards was great and the nature reserve is just by the station in the opposite direction.


The sea air smelt amazing after breathing so much London air and the weather was dry and sunny later on. After the boats and more reserved air of Leigh on Sea, Southend was for the penny arcades, funfair and icecream. Shame about the pebbly beach, I couldn't stand it after 20mins and had to put my shoes back on!

A few days in St Ives

Last week saw Ruth and I in St Ives. It was a mini holiday, we had been there about 8 or 9 years ago and really loved the town. Tate St Ives was on the list of visits, and fortunately there was a display of Bernard Leach's work there, as the museum of his work was closed for refurbishment.
There was some interesting work from contemporary artists in Cornwall on display in Tate St Ives I am looking at the video work more often as I walk around with my video camera.


The Barbara Hepworth museum and Sculpture garden was again a delight to see. I bought a DVD about her and Bernard Leach, lovely to see Barbara Hepworth in her recently planted garden. The cherry tree only a quarter of the size it is today. And interesting that she states quite strongly that her sculpture is for touching, and for interacting with.
How sad that we are not allowed ( officially ) to climb, lean or touch her work now, when that experience was integral to her conception of the sculptures she made.


I took quite a lot of photos some videos of the sea and water and did some drawing while I was there. I am working on my Bird Diaries. Little books perhaps, that note one of my connecting with the birds around me.