A Daily Sketch for 2013

To kick things off in 2013 I've decided to proceed with the idea muted in my last post about making a sketch a day for a year. You can call it a new year's resolution if you wish, I'm calling it 'a daily sketch', for two reasons really, 1) because that is what it is, and 2) most new year's resolutions are hastily made in a boozy haze on new year's eve and often falter fairly soon afterwards. I've been pondering this a while and from what I can see from other people's daily painting and drawing projects it can be a really helpful and interesting exercise. We'll see.
From my own point of view, with limited studio time at the moment because of my commitment to our business I'm hoping that the somewhat monastic, regular 'drip, drip' of sketches will at least keep my eye in and at best open up some new ideas for larger works when the time will allow, so, happy new year friends, and here goes...

First Snow of Winter

Just five days after the official meteorological start to Winter. We awoke this morning with a bit of a shiver and were greeted with the first snow of the winter, this was the scene at 7.30am along our street. The tartist and I were at work for 8.00 to do the breakfast shift  after which we got our heads together to finalise our plans for the new Artcafé menu, the winter theme was helped considerably by the view from table 6 of a snowy churchyard. For my part I've been flirting with the idea of some sort of drawing or painting-a-day for year type project for 2013. Now this been nagging away for some time at the back of my mind and is a scary thought but tantalising at the same time. Painting a day type blogs and projects are nothing new and there are ever so many across the virtual world including some extremely good ones like this one by American artist Duane Keiser I discovered the other day. If I choose to do it I have to be sure it's going to bring something to my work and not just massage my ego, well, I've still a couple of weeks to make up my mind and then work out what form it might take... watch this chilly space, as they say.

Almost Mid-Winter on the Island

 'Strood Channel' ~ Pastel on Paper

Having just returned from a bracing walk along the Coast Road and with the feeling beginning to return to my fingertips I thought I'd put pen to paper again (or curser to pixel) on what has become a somewhat sporadic blog. The days are almost at their shortest now and although unlike yesterday the temparature has not been minus, the easterly wind coming up the river Blackwater had an eyewatering bite to it. By 4pm it was almost dark, but minutes earlier the setting sun had peeked through the cloud over Tollesbury and set the sky alight for a few fleeting minutes. With the light fading as I turned into the High Street I saw a cloud of Starlings doing that spectacular swirling around they like to do before going off to roost. The Brent Geese are well and truly encamped around the saltmarshes now and I'm pleased to say we can hear their familiar honking sounds down on the Strood from our bedroom at night. And so it's almost mid winter and the island is as cold as it should be, dark about 4.30 and thoughts inevitably are turning towards Christmas, my thoughts have also turned towards producing some winter paintings after my chilly afternoon walk along the waterfront.

Yobs From The Bank

Yesterday I took the train up to London to visit the Affordable Art Fair, which was a very interesting trip but that's not what I'm going to tell you about today. I've written a little on banking before on theartistandthetartist alluding to the Quaker capitalists and their principled approach to banking. In contrast I'd like to share a very loud and aggressive mobile phone conversation I overheard on the train yesterday from the seat behind me. Here a large, suited gent. was sitting, yelling at a colleague (back at the office I assume) in expletive riddled tones for the whole carriage to hear. The poor chap on the receiving end obviously had not acted fast enough on some 'deal' or other.

"Craig, I don't think you've even read the f#**#ng e-mail, go back and read the f#**#ng e-mail, then call the client and tell him he can draw down on the money, do it, now. Craig, you're not f#**#ng listening to me, if you do it now, it don't actually matter if it's 'arf a percent or one percent, call 'im now, tell 'im he can draw down an' we're lookin' at sixty grand each in our f#**#ng account before Christmas."

Mmm nice. I don't know whether Craig got his finger out or not, and don't much care but the point about this conversation is the overtly greedy tone of the whole transaction. I don't know whether our friend and his colleague Craig were pimping draw down mortgages or loans or whatever, but the point that struck me was, neither did they.

Going for gold in Bexhill-on-Sea

I have to confess that the run up to the 2012 London Olympics has me pretty nonplussed really, especially the bewildering greed and opportunism of the sponsors that have hitched themselves on the back of the whole event. That said one or two things have actually managed to capture my imagination, like this piece/installation by sculptor Richard Wilson that is part of the cultural olympiad, a series of artyfarty events running in tandem to the sporting one. Perched on the roof of the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill-on-Sea is his piece "Hang On A Minute Lads, I've Got A Great Idea..." a brilliant tongue in cheek balancing act.
Eddie Izzard who helped fund the piece says "By the end of 2012 I would hope that the word goes out from our country that not only do we run excellent world events, but also we balance coaches on the edges of buildings like no one else ever could.” Well said Eddie, at the end of this expensive, frenzied Olympic fortnight when all the golds, silvers and bronzes are counted we will indeed boast that we can balance a coach on the edge of a building like no one else.

TBTE 08.06.2012

Evening Sunshine On The Oyster Pits


We've had a very windswept couple of days here on Mersea and whilst out walking the dog we were treated to a break in the clouds and rain to reveal some evening sunshine. In the foreground all the paraphernalia of the oyster trade and in the background the sailing barge 'Dawn', a scene unchanged for centuries. With more unseasonal high winds and rain forecast my walk along the waterfront in the evening sun was a welcome break from the hectic menu design and planning going on at the Artcafé this week.

Our Perspective on Tymperleys

Yesterday we gave a statement to James Calnan of The Daily Gazette here in Colchester, only a small portion was used so here you can read it in full.

"Our dispute is not with Wilkin and Sons, they are an ethical company with an enviable reputation, we have been using Tiptree products in our café for almost 10 years. They are not the cheapest but they are the best. Our dispute is with Colchester Borough Council because who in their right mind would allow another business to cross their land to open up next door in competition without a protest….we would never win The Apprentice that’s for sure.
This is not fundamentally about competition, we have been in business long enough to know that competition can be a very good thing and we have confidence in our ‘homemade brand’ its about certain principles ie: the fact that Colchester Borough Council must have known that they didn’t own the archway and probably assumed that we would say nothing. We are not so naïve as to not realise we risk being portrayed as the bad guys in all of this but who wouldn’t stand up for themselves in a similar position? We owe it to our business, our hard working staff and loyal customers. The dispute has gone to adjudication with the Land Registry so we have no influence over what happens next, realistically we don’t expect to win this but we had to make a stand.

We were really disappointed when Colchester Borough Council closed Tymperleys it is a genuine heritage site of real importance to Colchester and should be open to the people of the town to enjoy as Bernard Mason intended. The sad thing is that with so much money allocated across town towards Firstsite/VAF it had to be closed at all."

We didn't ask for any of this, it's been dumped on our doorstep by Colchester Borough Council who decided that they didn't need to check who owned what before proceeding with offering a lease. We could have done without all this quite frankly.