Sketches of Margate

 

I've been out a couple of times to sketch down on the sea front and harbour, but the weather has been so cold that I haven't been able to spend much time there yet.

I love the fact that the sea changes colour everyday, from the clearest pale jade to cobalt blue and greeny grey.

I've taken a few photographs, but it's hard to capture some of the subtlties of the colours and the mysterious sea mists.
 These are sketches done with water soluable coloured pencils, looking out towards Reculver and one of the main beach at Margate.

This is one done in water colour, the paper has cockled a bit.

Margate Bazaar

Today was the first Margate Bazaar of the season,organised by  Roxanne from Rough Trade and Lady Tesla's Loose leaves and Mud. I have a selection of cards at  Rough Trade which has a good selection of vintage, upcycled goods and jewellry.

 Margate is gearing up for the summer, with the beach and new steps ready for the visitors and new and old shops opening for the Easter weekend and summer season. Vintage shops are a speciality here, with loads of shops in the old and main town to visit.

Unfortunately the weather is decidedly un Spring like. We had snow and sun and then stronger cold winds, which kept the visitors away. Though there were some hardy souls out after lunch braving the weather.

We had optimistically themed our stall with Spring in mind, maybe the next time we have a stall it will really be Spring. I had a few new painted and mixed media pieces and a new painting of Margate., plus the old wooden cake stand I'd painted with copies of antique blue and white plates.

My painted cake stand, photo from Margate Bazaar facebook page.

Move to Margate

We finally made our move down from London to Margate at the end of November. It's been unpacking settling in and the Christmas/New Year festivities keeping me busy.
Our little terrace house is great and only 10 mins walk from the town, 15 mins to the sea.

I've been down to the beach quite a few times, beachcombing already, collecting shells and stones. I have ideas for strings and mobiles made up of the chalk pebbles with holes worn through. They look like minature Barbara Hepworth sculptures

I've also had the camera out, though the winter weather can be grey and wet, there is a lot more light here on the coast which I am really appreciating.

Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain

Ruth and I visited the Pre Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Modern a little while ago. link to the exhibition site here

Millais's Mariana.

I thought it might be a bit of a block buster show, and it certainly was busy. That's one of the problems I find personally, having to shuffle along side hundreds of people to get near a piece of work, without blocking other people.

The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis.

Still I was pleased to have gone, the Pre Raphaelites were one of the groups of painters that I first admired as a child. A lot of their paintings were in an art encyclopedia that we had at home and I remember spending lots of time regularly looking at such pictures as The Blind  Girl, Hope, The Lady of Shalott, The Scapegoat and The Death of Chatterton.

Such vivid detailing in the paintings influenced my teenage pictures of the natural world.

Ophelia by Millais.

There is definately a quality of light that I respond to now, rather than the detailed depictions, and the spiritual dimension in some of the work.

William Morris's bed from Kelmscott Manor.

Interestingly I found myself more desiring of some of the tapestries, carpets and furniture rather than the main paintings. They did reinspire me to take up decorating some of my furniture again when we've moved.