In The Studio Again

Well, the month of June is here and I've spent a good deal of today in my studio. I've finished off the old road sign watercolour I've been working on and have stretched a whole imperial sheet of delicious 'Arches' (140 lb rough) paper for a large commission I'm planning to start in the next couple of days. As for the road sign paintings, I can't quite put my finger on why I like to keep painting them, but it's certainly to some extent sentimentality for things quintessentially British and these old cast iron signs are gradually becoming extinct. In fact the one above only has it's post, a small part of one of the direction pointers and the little crescent shaped parish badge left, so I had to radically repair it using artist's licence. For those of you curious as to where this sign is, you'll find it at the junction of Colchester Road and Mill Road in West Mersea.

The Silly Season

'View Up The Beach' ~ Watercolour

As the silly season reaches its zenith we find ourselves at full stretch. We have people off sick and people away on holiday and the light at the end of our proverbial tunnel seems far distant indeed. So blogging inevitably has taken a back seat recently I'm afraid, but that doesn't in any way mean the artist and the tartist have lost their 'blogging mojo', we've simply been far too busy with our day job.

Now, speaking of the silly season, we've noticed at this time of year how the demeanor of certain sections of the café public changes to what can only be described as impatience. We've tried to understand why this might be, as it seems to us a bit of a puzzle, that people on holiday (I have to admit we sometimes refer to them as the 'bucket and spade brigade') might require their cream tea much faster than anyone else or than at another time of year. We're often asked "how quickly can you do me a cappuccino?...I'm in a bit of a hurry", surely a café is not the ideal place to be when in a hurry. I may just be over-tired and cranky at the moment but I have to confess I sometimes want to say (with my best Basil Fawlty voice) "oh, you were were first were you, sorry madam, I completely forgot the world is about to end in five minutes!" I mean, most sensible people, go to a café to relax, or 'chill' (if under 25) over a coffee and sandwich, and hopefully recharge their battery. This is central to the idea of 'café culture' and I'm pleased to say the majority of our regulars use our café for this reason. At the risk of labouring my point I've filched this beautifully succinct snippet from wikipedia..."Although fast-paced coffee service is available, such as at Starbucks, it is still questionable as to what extent such enterprises truly embody the traditional role of coffeehouses in communities as enhancing the local culture". Well I'll get off my soapbox now, and hope I haven't put you off, we'd still love to see you this silly season, but hey, slow down, it's Summer.

'Barbeque' Summer

Summer At The Strood

The tartist and I have decided to hang a piece of seaweed up outside our back door in order to more accurately ascertain what the weather has in store for us over the next few weeks. We were going to buy a multi-million pound satellite and study the available weather data and statistics that span the centuries but decided to leave nothing to chance!