the artist and the tartist

A Woodcut Print For St Valentines'

2012-02-14T11:38:00.004-08:00

Here's a very simple two colour design woodblock print I made a couple of years ago for the tartist for St. Valentines' Day. It's actually an MDF print to be precise which I find quite easy to carve but unfortunately MDF being a really soft material doesn't tolerate too many impressions before it breaks up. I used a block for each colour with this one, rather than my preferred reduction method and was kind of taken with the loose registration between the two colours.

Snow Comes To Mersea Island

2012-02-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

So the snow arrived just as the forecasters had predicted, it must have been snowing most of the night because we had a covering of about six inches when we awoke this morning. After a cup of tea from the warm confines of our duvet the tartist and I decided the best course of action was to get outside in it (not innit!).

So we decided to go for a bracing walk down to the Artcafé, where else? for a coffee and a bacon sandwich.

The snow was quite deep and powdery

When we arrived at the Artcafé there was already an improvised sled park as quite a lot of people had obviously had the same idea as us and were warming themselves inside.

As we left the café to continue our walk someone came skidding along in a plastic fish box being towed along on a rope by a Landrover. Please believe me when I tell you this is not at all unusual when it snows here on our island, and is often indulged in after the pub when the bruising effects of such a ride can be dulled by one or two 'tinctures'.

The houseboats on Coast Road

We continued our walk along the coast past the sailing barge 'Dawn' who has become something of a fixture these days on our waterfront as she over-winters beside the oyster pits.

Just beyond in the distance can be seen packing marsh island with the iconic Packing Shed standing on its' stilts amidst the ice.

And the sea really has been freezing this past week when temperatures have barely clawed their way over freezing point during the day, and during the night have been well below.

On past the Company Shed just opening up for business as we continued past and on up The Lane.

When we arrived home tingling from the cold the stove was still well alight to dry us and our boots out, we love our stove, especially in weather like this.

And the tartist cooked us a 'cockle' warming chilli con carne, very seventies, but was just what we needed to complete the day.

Etta James, January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012

2012-01-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Quite a few years back now, I had the good fortune to be introduced to the wonderful voice of Etta James, by my great friend and fellow musician and singer 'Grip'. Back then we'd listen to all kinds of random stuff, making up mix-tapes (remember them?) just searching for inspiration or songs to sing.

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Etta James it seems was an enormous influence upon ever so many singers and musicians down the years, so, sadly we learned of her death a couple of days ago. In the spirit of giving thanks for her and her singing I thought I'd post a little something up here. In the unlikely event you've never heard her voice here's a couple of her songs for you to enjoy. RIP. Etta.

The Sound Of 2012

2012-01-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

So a new year lurches forward already one week old, as the old one recedes rapidly in my rearview mirror. Many questions and some resolutions too, for both me and thetartist. Who will be the sound of 2012? that's a good question, well according to the BBC it's soul singer Michael Kiwanuka who tops their Sound of 2012 list, he really reminds me of Bill Withers. My hope is that perhaps this young man may be in the vanguard of a bunch of emerging songwriters, singers & music makers who will be making music for us that is not 'pasteurised' or 'X-Factored' into a bland stodge.

He's in good company, previous winners include Jessie J, Adele, Mika, Ellie Goulding, Corinne Bailey Rae and Keane.

Packet Soup... It's Not What It Used To Be!

2011-11-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

I can't quite believe it was June 1st when we last posted, much has happened since then, including the tartists' birthday just a week ago. One of the more unusual presents she received was a packet of soup mix, even more unusual as you can see is the flavour, suffice to say we will be conducting a taste test very soon and will report back with our findings.

In The Studio Again

2011-06-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Fivers by Post

2011-05-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

After a rather prolonged Lenten sabbatical from all things twitter/facebook/blog I thought I'd better try and get my hand in again with a post or two. I had been finding inspiration hard to come by, but then by chance my Mum came to the rescue with another of her eccentric plans. She's quite remarkable and keeps us amused often with various projects and schemes totally without realising how much entertainment it gives both family and friends. A couple of weeks back we were all together for a few drinks and a spot of tea to celebrate her birthday, the conversation meandered round as it does in most families after a couple of glasses of wine, you know the kind of thing "...did you ever get a reply from that message in a bottle you threw in the sea beside the Esplanade in 1958?" or "...why did great aunt Agnes run off with that brush salesman and leave a husband and five children?" For some reason on this particular evening Mum asked "I wonder if I put a stamp and address on a bank note and posted it, if it would reach it's destination?" Our Dad's retort was unsurprisingly something like "don't be so bloody stupid woman, of course it won't, some bugger will nick it straight away, I tell you what, I'll set fire to the money now if you like and save you the stamp!" which of course was throwing down the gauntlet so to speak. If there's something Mum can't resist it is a challenge, so she decided to send each of her grand children a fiver through the post in a clear plastic envelope with just a stamp and address.

Well, the bank notes were posted and all arrived safe and sound at their destinations. So it would seem good old fasioned honesty is alive and well and mum has been vindicated in her hare brained experiment, plus each of her grandchildren got a drink out of it too.

In Praise of 'Dymo' Tape

2011-03-05T03:25:00.000-08:00

Would you believe it, human interface design at the Artcafé ?!. An interesting and pithy piece on theartist's brother & sister in law's blog 'You May Also Like' Who'd would have thought that 'Dymo' tape could be so fascinating?

Shells From The Beach

2011-03-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from the beach where I have been collecting some shells and doing a little drawing in the bitter early March wind. The beach here at West Mersea is completely littered with oysters of the Pacific/Gigas variety these days, totally out numbering our native, so I brought some home with me along with mussels, winkles, limpets and some very tiny, pretty whelk-like shells, in order to do some more detailed studies for some larger work I have been planning for some time. The wind seemed to be coming directly off the North Sea and up the River Blackwater, so with eyes streaming and shaky hands, 10 minutes was my limit for each sketch. But I feel totally invigorated now I'm home perusing my finds with coffee in hand and stove alight.

NHS ~ Failing to Treat Elderly with Care & Respect

2011-02-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

John Allerton 1927 ~ 2009

For nearly two years I have been trying to pretend that the things that happened to my dad when he died were a tragic one-off but now I realise the sad truth. I can barely stand to hear the terrible things in the news about neglect of the elderly in hospitals, the removal of all their dignity and total disregard for their human rights.

My father died in hospital. He had dementia which had advanced very quickly and after a short time in a care home was admitted to hospital after a fall, just a fall. Within the first few days he had another fall but it was not noticed that he had broken his shoulder. When it was noticed, he was bandaged with a pillowcase because they "didn't have the right dressing".

There followed a catalogue of neglect bordering on abuse and he wasn't the only patient I saw left to their own devices, without drinks, without help eating, without any caring attention. My dad was nil by mouth and so slowly, over a month starved to death.
We made an official complaint to the hospital and were fobbed off with excuses which we accepted because at that time it was too painful to pursue it. I wish now that we had been stronger, louder and more determined.

My father was in the Royal Navy during the 2nd World War, so he survived Hitler. He had T.B. and diabetes which he survived. He survived the death of my mother from lung cancer, only to die scared, confused and neglected.

Sorry Daddy x

A Pot Of Tea & A Question On Musical Improvisation

2011-02-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my good friend 'Banksy Boy' and I were having one of our deep discussions, over a pot of assam/ceylon blend, about the relative merits of musicians who are readers, (usaully) classically trained and those who come from a more contemporary background, from say a jazz/blues tradition. Our discussion came hot on the heels of loads of stuff we've been reading in blogland about music for worship, both good, bad and in some cases ugly.

We both wondered why is it that in our experience musos. who are classically trained, and more often than not 'technically' far better than their jazz/blues contemporaries are so flummoxed when asked to improvise. A simple question really.
To use your instrument to express yourself, that's all. After all they have the knowledge of scales, arpeggios, modes etc. in thier arsenal but when asked to open up and be creative for a few bars the result is often at best stilted and wooden.

Now my alterior motive behind this post is to share with you one of my favourite saxaphone solos, by Pee Wee Ellis playing with Van Morrison at Montreux in 1980.

Van's singing style also exemplifies the nub of our discussion as it probably breaks all the rules that any music teacher would espouse, but, it reaches deep into both song and listener, in short it has soul.

More Big Banking Nonsense

2011-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

If you've read Wednesday's post here's a little something that I stumbled upon and thought I'd better share with you. I'm very concerned about our coalition government's antics. Also the proposed closing of libraries and selling off of our woodlands are in my opinion two very bad ideas indeed.

SFTW ~ Here's One I Made Earlier

2011-02-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice recipe you might like to try at home, H/T Jack.

The Banking Debacle & Quaker Capitalism

2011-02-02T00:32:00.000-08:00

I have been puzzled by something for what must be at least a year now, and it concerns this economic mess, in the midst of which we find ourselves currently. At first when things started looking a bit dodgy (remember the queues of people outside branches of Northern Rock bank demanding their savings, 1930's German style?) I think none of us really had any idea of what had been going on inside the banking business. I certainly hadn't. Things seem to have moved on apace since then. We've been through a change of government and you and I [tax payers] are now propping up major high street banks. Whole nations (Eire, Greece, Portugal etc.) are almost bankrupt.

I think that the most galling thing for me about this situation is that it seems that running a bank, being a bank, looking after the money, however you choose to define it, is not exactly operating in a competitive market, being dominated by just five big banks. With that in mind it really ought to be a most profitable business, although particularly disadvantageous to the consumer. How have these banks failed us so badly and continue to do so despite being propped up with billions of pounds of taxpayer's money? O.k. this is of course a bit of a rant, but not without good reason. In January our rate of Value Added Tax rose to 20% in the U.K. in order to mitigate the effects of the huge debt foisted upon us by the banking sector's misadventure. This will affect us all, rich and poor significantly as V.A.T. is pretty much an unavoidable tax (unless of course you run your car on custard and choose to wear children's clothes!). The central question I suppose I have is why on earth are we not aiming to recoup the billions of pounds lost from those who are responsible for the loss in the first place? After all they seem to me to be the very highest earners in society and therefore most able to put back into the system as it were.

What I think could in part be going wrong is, at some fundamental level, and over several generations the very nature of our capitalism has changed. It has to be said that what I truly think is we need some seismic shift back to the kind of principles central to those Quaker capitalists like Joseph Rowntree and George Cadbury. These men were brilliant entrepreneurs by any standards but unlike today's business leaders and bankers (who see no harm in pocketing huge personal profits while their companies collapse) were disciplined and far sighted, guided by their Quaker principles. For these men I'm sure the idea of wealth creation for personal gain would have seemed offensive and to whom the very catalyst of our current financial crisis (i.e. reckless & irresponsible debt) would have been shameful. It's easy to dismiss such principles as antiquated isn't it, when today's measure of one's success is purely projected by material objects. It would be hard to imagine the CEO of one of the afore mentioned banks building a huge financial empire whilst writing ground breaking papers on poverty, or campaigning against a multitude of human rights abuses, but, that's just what the likes of George Cadbury did.

I was amazed to learn that in the nineteenth century Quaker families in Britain ran seventy-four banks, and I'll bet they were not for the benefit of shareholder dividends or bosses bonuses! I guess what I feel really strongly is once again we need this kind of leadership to replace the rampant greed at the centre of our banking industry we have today. It may seem naive, but tweaking taxes ever upward is not going to solve a great deal for the debts of our wider society, it's high time the bankers started putting something back into the system that, like it or not, they are now indebted to themselves.

A New Decade 2011

2011-01-02T01:46:00.000-08:00

So friends a new year begins, and a new decade for that matter. We're entering 2011 with our artistandtartist glass half full as is our wont and would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and peaceful new year. What has 2011 in store I wonder, adventure? intrigue? excitement? in order to find out I thought I'd consult that tried and tested oracle into events yet to come, from the mystical far east via my Christmas cracker, the 'Fortune Teller' ~ Miracle fish.

So I placed the little red cellophane visionary upon my open palm and would you believe its head and tail began to move.

These particular movements according to the guide on the reverse side of its packet indicate 'In Love'. What a result! I hope you will all be entering 2011 with hearts that are full.

In The Bleak Midwinter

2010-12-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

Well, we've reached that midwinter point again, the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, the longest night.

Somehow this song from Sting just resonates with me both musically and lyrically on this our longest night...

"Ghost Story"

I watch the Western sky
The sun is sinking
The geese are flying South
It sets me thinking

I did not miss you much
I did not suffer
What did not kill me
Just made me tougher

I feel the winter come
His icy sinews
Now in the fire light
The case continues

Another night in court
The same old trial
The same old questions asked
The same denial

The shadows closely run
Like jury members
I look for answers in
The fire's embers

Why was I missing then
That whole December
I give my usual line:
I don't remember

Another winter comes
His icy fingers creep
Into these bones of mine
These memories never sleep

And all these differences
A cloak I borrow
We kept our distances
Why should it follow I must have loved you

What is the force that binds the stars
I wore this mask to hide my scars
What is the power that pulls the tide
I never could find a place to hide

What moves the Earth around the sun
What could I do but run and run and run
Afraid to love, afraid to fail
A mast without a sail

The moon's a fingernail and slowly sinking
Another day begins and now I'm thinking
That this indifference was my invention
When everything I did sought your attention

You were my compass star
You were my measure
You were a pirate's map
A buried treasure

If this was all correct
The last thing I'd expect
The prosecution rests
It's time that I confess: I must have loved you

A Winter Trip To Orford

2010-12-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

The tartist and I have just returned from yet another rather splendid few days away in Orford, a favourite nearby spot up in Suffolk. It's strange really as it is relatively close to home and very similar in it's landscape etc. but to us it seems quite far from our every day hustle & bustle. We stayed at the Crown & Castle which overlooks the old castle in Orford built by Henry 2nd in 1170'ish (the castle, not the hotel!). It is a great place for a few days unwinding with tastefully designed rooms plus an excellent 'unfussy' restaurant with a lovely menu on which there is always locally landed fish which suits us both really well.

Orford Castle through the bathroom window of our room.

Reed Beds at Snape

The bitterly cold weather, snow & ice was a feature of this particular visit and on a couple of days out I tentatively drove us on the icy road a few miles through Tunstall forest to Snape.
At Snape the old maltings have been converted into a concert hall and visitor centre with an art gallery, cafés and shops but one of the real beauties of Snape for me is the vast area of reed beds that surround the maltings. Despite the cold I went out walking with my camera (it really was too bitter for sketching this time) under very leaden skies between blizzards, meeting up later with the tartist for hot chocolate & cake. I'm pleased to say I have returned with some very interesting reference material of the snowy, muddy, windswept reeds.

On our way home we once again stopped off in Woodbridge and spent rather more than we ought to have on books in Browsers bookshop & café, where the coffee is pretty decent and the cakes are all homemade from recipes taken from books available for sale in the shop (a simple and brilliant marketing rouse on their part). As I've mentioned before in a previous post this part of Suffolk is really well worth a trip out even if it's just for the day. I can guarantee we'll be returning soon.

The Shuffling First 15 Meme...

2010-11-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

'The Hottest Day, Feldy Marshes' ~ Watercolour

I've not indulged myself in one of these 'memes' before, but this one from 'Banksy Boy' had me intrigued. Here's what to do...

1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer.
2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist
–NO editing/cheating, please.

1/ 'Oxford Comma' ~ Vampire Weekend
2/ 'Carraroe'/'Out On The Ocean' ~ Dennis Cahill & Martin Hayes
3/ 'The Meeting' ~ XTC
4/ 'Contusion' ~ Stevie Wonder
5/ 'Sunrise Over Sea' ~ John Butler Trio
6/ 'Come On Let's Go' ~ Los Lobos
7/ 'Brown Eyed Girl' ~ Van Morrison
8/ 'Me And Mr. Jones' ~ Amy Winehouse
9/ 'Some Kind Of Wonderful' ~ Paul Young & Q-tips
10/ 'Fool Who Knows' ~ Nick Lowe
11/ 'Needle & Thread' ~ Richard Thompson
12/ 'Two Dancers' ~ Wild Beasts
13/ 'Nzaji' ~ Mario Rui Silva
14/ 'A Sigh' ~ Crowded House
15/ 'Indian Queens' ~ Nick Lowe

So, this is what I get from a random snapshot of my i-pod, I don't quite know what to make of it as there is simply so much more variety on there that could have cropped up. Only two really contemporary artists there, Vampire Weekend plus the weird and wonderful Wild Beasts. Still an interesting little exercise. Give it a go friends...I'm curious to see what you get on yours!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

The artist and the tartist became members of that rather exclusive and slightly aloof minority group 'The living dead' this weekend or zombies if you prefer. It's not easy being a reanimated corpse, especially outside on a chilly October evening, but our good friends Pete & Val made us really warm with their hospitality, chilli con carne and chimeneas. You know it is genuinely heartwarming to be in a group of old friends and witness a werewolf talking to Uncle Fester about his power steering or indeed the Wicked Witch of the West talking to Count Dracula about working in accounts. So, you've probably deduced we were at a fancy dress Halloween party and a splendid time was had by kids and adults alike.

The Grapes Of Wrath - Poignantly Re Visited

2010-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

The tartist and I were fortunate to go and watch the Mercury Theatre's production of 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck last night, H/T Peter and what a superb play it is, extremely poignant, moving and hauntingly relevant once again. The time seems absolutely ripe for this amazing story to be re visited right now, and I for one came away feeling very aware of the narrow margin that exists between good fortune and plenty and poverty and desperation. The best play we've seen at the Mercury in quite a while and urge you if you can in the last couple of days it has to run to go and see it if you can, you won't be disappointed I'm sure.

2010-10-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

We've just returned from a bracing walk on the seawall, one of our favourite routes, with plenty of salty air, wildfowl, saltmarsh and today a fairly chilly northerly breeze too. Having a rare midweek day off we barely saw another person, just the tartist, mabel and myself and a big blue dome of a sky over the Strood Channel.

With the sun much lower now the October light has a quality all of its own, casting much longer more defined shadows and more saturated colours everywhere. And the fluffy clouds and prussian blue sky looked just like the title sequence from The Simpsons!

A rare blog picture of the tartist in her hat with Mabel

The Return of The Geese

2010-10-18T02:36:00.000-07:00

'View Across Ray Marshes' ~ Pastel

Last night we heard the distinct 'honking' sound that marks the arrival at this time of year of the migratory Brent Geese to the saltmarsh around Essex. We always look forward to hearing them, especially at night when laying in bed, as their arrival here puts another punctuation mark in the seasonal cycle. This usually seems to coincide with the arrival of colder weather and this week sure enough it turned up too.

10/10/10

2010-10-10T04:06:00.000-07:00

Ten, ten, twenty-ten! It's definitely Autumn here on Mersea now, here is the view that greeted us on arrival at work at 7.30 this morning with the sun peeking over the yews in the church yard opposite. The leaves are falling and being swirled around on the ground and there is a dew on the grass each morning, the tartist and I both commented to each other how fortunate we are to live and work here.

Artie & Vincent

2010-10-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Like millions of people we're woken up most mornings by the dulcet tones of a radio alarm, not too loud you understand, not so quiet as to be ignored. It blips into action this time of year at 6am then for a period of time just after that we find ourselves in that very pleasant semi conscious state listening to whatever the beeb is broadcasting our way. We mostly have on radio two these days, which may be a bit of a giveaway as to which demographic the pair of us has slipped into. We experimented with 6 music for a while but didn't find it quite what we were after for our wake up tunes, but its pretty good later in the day. Once downstairs it has to be radio four for news, weather, 'thought for the day' etc., anyhow I digress.

This morning we were woken by a fabulous swing tune by Artie Shaw titled 'Frenesi', which was a most pleasant start to today. Now hearing this I was reminded of something I read that Artie Shaw was quoted to have said about Vincent Van Gogh and is so simple in it's language but so profoundly true of all great artists, be they painters, writers, musicians etc. that I thought I'd share it here.

'What was Van Gogh about? God knows, we could talk about that forever. One thing we do know is that he was not trying to please somebody else. He was trying to do what he had to do.' ~ Artie Shaw

2010-09-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

'Antiques and Collectables' ~ Watercolour & Gouache
We are pleased to see our neighbours at 'The Poop Deck' in Coast Road have started the blogging habit, so here is a kind of welcome to the blogosphere painting. I painted this about 12 months ago from one of Lyn's fab. dressed windows.

Saltmarsh Sketces #1

2010-09-14T05:26:00.001-07:00

Here are a few hasty pencil sketches done on a very blustery, showery afternoon on the seawall. I think this may be the spark for something bigger on saltmarsh I've wanted to do for simply ages. We shall see.

Living On An Island

2010-09-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

View Across Strood Channel to Wigborough Hill ~ Pastel on paper

"He who has never seen himself surrounded on all sides by the sea can never possess an idea of the world, and of his relation to it." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

We've been getting some pretty big tides this week and of course the Strood has been getting covered for a time each day and as a consequence we're getting all the usual questions in the shop from curious visitors to the island, who have found themselves marooned for an hour or so. From the "how on earth do you all put up with it?" and "how long until we can get across?" to (almost unbelievably) "should we find a place to stay until it goes down?". And yesterday a nice couple visiting from Scotland, with a view to a move down south to Mersea, asked me "as a local, how do you feel about getting caught by the tide?". This, I think is a very interesting question that raises a couple of wider questions, like, how do any of us feel about living on this relatively small, muddy island and do we possess an island mentality? after all we are, in Britain, all islanders in a broader sense.

After briefly trawling the Internet for references to island mentality it quickly becomes apparent most views of this are negative, which it seems is in part due to the fact that most uses of the term island mentality seem to refer to the cultural, moral, ideological isolation of island life, whilst this may be true for some, small isolated, islands (probably not for a heavily populated place like Mersea, only a spitting distance from the mainland) it still doesn't satisfy the question of whether there is a deeper feeling or state of mind associated with living on a small lump of land, surrounded on all sides by water, or mostly mud in our case! I'm not entirely sure myself, but I, like others have a deep affinity with this place, that seems to get stronger as I get older. There is also some comfort for me in living such a geographically defined place as an island, as opposed to a sprawling suburb say.

One of the positive aspects of getting caught by the tide here is that it can be spectacularly beautiful when the salt marsh is covered. For an hour or two we are truly isolated and have our timetable set by nature again, and are reminded that we are not actually in control of everything. I'm sure there are many who live here and have been caught by the tide on a summer's night on the Colchester side of the Strood and like me have got out of the car, rolled up their trousers and paddled around on the footpath under the stars to the sound of the seabirds, until the water has receded.
I think for the couple from Scotland contemplating a move to an island like ours, if you are seriously concerned about the tide covering the road a few times a month, then, maybe you should look elsewhere.

TBTE 08.09.2010 Village Green No.VG247

2010-09-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Village Green No.VG247

I'm just back from my evening constitutional around the seawall with my canine companion Mabel. This, believe it or not, is one of our village greens here on Mersea Island and is also probably one of the most photographed, sketched & painted scenes by locals and visitors alike. I'm not ashamed to admit that this particular corner of the waterfront just at the end of The Lane has been something of a 'pot boiler' for me too over the years.

'Old Trawlers' ~ Watercolour

I admit it's not much like your architypal village green but little spaces like this muddy one of ours are very precious indeed and definately need preserving.

Back In The Studio

2010-08-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while again hasn't it, sorry, but joy of joys I managed to get into my studio again yesterday for a few hours. So I have a new medium sized watercolour underway and a big imperial sheet of the gorgeous 'Arches' stretched and ready to go for a much larger painting that I've been planning for some time. Whilst working yesterday I had a musical studio companion in the form of Sufjan Stevens which seemed to go well with the work, so here's a little taster of the joyfully odd & eclectic Sufjan for those who are not familiar with his music. I know I keep saying this but, I will try to keep more regular with my posting.

We No Speak Americano

2010-07-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

This is not part of our usual aural diet, but it's somehow worked it's way in there. We can't stop humming it, and the video is brilliant too, any how we thought we share it with you. Just for the record, an 'Americano' is also a classic long black coffee, I'll tell you why in a future post if you don't already know. Have a good weekend peeps!

The Search For A Diabetic Cake

2010-07-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Has anyone out there got any fabulous cake recipes for diabetics?

Having cracked (albeit with just one cake) the gluten free barrier, I am now on the hunt for a diabetic cake that is good enough that non diabetics will like it too. I have found that often the recipes for diabetics are a sort of last ditch attempt to pretend that you are allowed cake.

My dad pretended for years that Orange Fruit Teabread was ok for him because he liked it, but for the diabetically challenged it was disastrous. I would like to find a cake that leaves diabetics feeling spoilt & lucky, not disappointed. I've tried two types of apple cake but as my guinea pig Mrs. Borrie will tell you, they were horrible. What's needed is a 'sneaky cake' that looks, feels and tastes fantastic but is, almost accidentally, good for us all.

Lemon & Almond Polenta Cake

2010-07-12T01:51:00.000-07:00

Since opening 'Cake-Hole' we've been asked often for something for those of you who have to follow a 'gluten free' diet. I'm now pleased to say we have a cake on offer that is both gluten free and ruddy delicious, these two adjectives are sadly almost never used in the same sentence. It's been our experience with gluten free cake often the flavour is all there but the texture is dissapointing, in contrast the tartist's Lemon & Almond Polenta Cake is both zesty and has a lovely texture... come on down all you gluten avoiders!

'Cake-Hole'

2010-07-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

It has been some time time since our last post and now we're able to break radio silence in order to reveal what we've been up to in the last few weeks. Our blog here has had to remain idle in order that we could shopfit and prepare our sparkling new venture here on Mersea Island called 'Cake-Hole', a brand new shop just two doors down from the Artcafé. Why 'Cake-Hole'? I hear you ask, well, for some considerable time demand for the tartist's homemade cakes etc. has far exceeded capacity in our little kitchen/servery at the artcafé and to be honest we've fancied having a 'deli' style shop for quite a while. so now in addition to a lovely new shop we now have an ample catering kitchen to better service the cafés, plus a dedicated office for all our admin.

'Cake-Hole'

Interior

Artisan breads, fresh daily.

Some of our olives, pistou, feta stuffed & global.

Our 'own label' ground coffees

It has been quite an effort to get this whole thing off the ground and quite a steep learning curve that we're still on having never before been in the business of retailing lovely stuff. Our ethos is to joyfully provide all manner of delicious things with an emphasis on homemade, locally sourced (or as local as possible) and good quality, with our list of stuff growing gradually each week it currently includes:- Artisan breads; fresh daily, Maggie & Jenny's homemade cakes, olives, quality leaf teas & coffee, Mersea Island free range eggs, Hadley's Farm Dairy ice cream, homemade chutney & salad dressing, plus a growing stock of stuff we can't quite describe in a word but is 'foodie' related, so, you get the gist of it so far.

We've had the name 'Cake-Hole' on ice for a couple of years now in the hope that the ideal premises would come along, and have determinedly shied away from calling our shop a 'Deli.' Not least because most deli's these days seem to by in loads of jams & chutneys etc. that are basically factory made products dressed up to look like your granny made them. Although not strictly speaking a deli., Cake-Hole is very deli-like and in the fullness of time we may not be able to resist stocking cheeses, cold meats and more conventional deli. fare alongside our olives and artisan breads already on offer.

Some of the fruits of the tartist's labours, red onion relish & honey-mustard salad dressing.

In addition to all this we've installed our old espresso machine from the Artcafé, which now has a shiny new one, so we can also make you a cappuccino etc. in our shop when things are extremely busy next door. But, of course our new shop is still in its infancy and very much a work in progress and we welcome any suggestions that would help us make improvements and extend our range to stock the sorts of things you like to buy on a regular basis.
Hopefully now this new project is up and running we can now keep our posts a bit more regular.

The Ukulele Is Good For You!

2010-02-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

This short film confirms what we've suspected for some time. The humble ukulele can work wonders.

St. Valentine's Biscuits

2010-02-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular belief St. Valentine was in fact a humble biscuit maker from Mersea Island, so, to celebrate this little known fact our Jenny has made some rather nice homemade biscuits for today. One batch of ginger, one of chocolate and one of shortbread...that's one each, plus one to share for £1.50, lovely with a pot of tea.

SFTW ~ F-Sharp

2010-02-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

If this doesn't make you laugh...then you're probably dead. Have a good weekend!

The Robin Hood Tax

2010-02-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

Bill Nighy, who portrays slippery characters to perfection, in a short film in support of Robin Hood Taxes.

The Snow Returns & The Performing Right Society

2010-02-10T03:04:00.000-08:00

The view from the Artcafé first thing this morning

As soon as we got to work this morning it started snowing again, only a dusting so far, but very pretty looking out from table 6.

Yesterday I had a phone call from The Performing Right Society, the organisation set up to collect fees on behalf of copyright holders of music, predominantly authors and music publishers. Fair enough, you might think. We've been grudgingly paying our dues since they caught up with us about two years ago, approx. £200 per café, per annum. And yesterday they called to remind us our fee was due for the next 12 months. This fee is apparently due for playing music where the general public is within 'earshot' which obviously includes cafés, shops, hairdressers, garages etc. etc. I can hear you asking what's your problem Jim? well, I have several...

When PRS first make their initial contact they convey themselves as a government style organisation who are collecting monies for all artists broadcast. Failure to do so is met with the threat of legal action. The PRS only collect and distribute money to their own members (who pay a fee to join by the way) by no means all artists. They are not connected to the government.

Let's assume you are a hairdresser who likes to listen to the BBC on the radio whilst cutting your customer's hair, you are required to pay the PRS. a license fee each year for this. Now, when a song is broadcast, a fee is collected for the writer, performer etc. at the point of broadcast, and presumably a certain percentage of the original purchase price of the media, be it CD or digital download etc. is too. How can it be right that you, the hairdresser, have to pay a fee at the point of reception?...we don't charge our customers twice for their coffee!

I always pay for the music I download and CD's too, I think it is only right and fair to the artist who's original work I'm enjoying, but this weird blanket license/tax on top is quite frankly 'milking it' and I don't like it. It also takes no account of how many times a particular artist gets a play, I might want to play Mozart all day and no Robbie Williams at all, yet, presumably Mr. Williams still gets a cut, like I say, milking it.

To put it crudely from a PRS. point of view, it is the same music (already paid for), same ears, different room. I don't have much time for researching all the in's and out's but there seems to to be no specific legal definition of a public performance. I'd be curious to know if anyone yet has been successfully 'nicked' for refusing to pay the PRS and it might be well worth an organiseation like the Federation of Small Businesses looking into the legality of these charges.

I have to add that I, in no way want to deprive musicians and artists of what's due to them (I am one myself) but my instinct tells me that these charges smell fishy.

The Blair Witch Hunt

2010-01-29T03:14:00.000-08:00

Something Sam posted on his blog [H/T] the other day has got me thinking. The link alludes to the nature of an apology vis a vis this miserable affair (the Iraq war). Now with Tony Blair about to have his day in front of the Iraq Inquiry the whole process seems to have taken on the spectre of a medieval witch trial, with a huge waiting list for seats. My view for what it's worth, is, this whole saga [war] has been an ill-conceived tragedy from start to finish. But the question that reading Sam's link prevoked is what are people looking for from Mr. Blair, an apology?, some sort of legal justification for the action?, which is looking unlikely too, or, I suspect simply the hollow satisfaction of watching him squirm in front of the panel.

Now the wider thought about all this that I wished to express was, that war, or any act of violence for that matter is the result of a complete breakdown of intellectual, civilised means of solving an argument. To try to put a legal framework around something like war (the ultimate expression of violence) seems kind of absurd to me. In other words once we start hurling bullets and bombs at each other the genie is out of the bottle.

I think the perfect metaphor for this contradiction is the 'eco-bullet', the environmentally friendly bullet that contains no lead, being developed by the military to be kinder to our environment.

I'm not so naive as to suggest there are not occasions when we have no other course than to use military force but historically these instances have always seemed to me pretty obvious by comparison to the Iraq war. None of us can guess what the outcome would have been to taking no action at all against this awful regime, but I'm am curious to learn what Messrs Blair and Bush's exit strategy was.

Theartistandtartist...Evil Geniuses!

2010-01-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

Another first for us, Maggie discovered this very complimentary review today whilst googling something else online. It is from an online PDF magazine called 'All The Rage', the article is rather out of date, unfortunately, but it refers to us as 'Evil Geniuses' (love it!) and, we came away with a commendable 8/10 and a couple of buffed up egos.

SFTW ~ How Can You Deny An Electric Car?

2010-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

We think this is cool, They Might Be Giants' 'Electric Car'. The thought has just occurred to me, that, if and when we embrace the electric car, manufacturers will have to include a mechanism to make a brroom brrrooom sound or else we'll never hear them coming!

Those Tricky Little Particles

2010-01-12T03:38:00.000-08:00

"At the minute, it would appear that more people are damaged by sunbeds than by nuclear power in the UK," A thought provoking article here, that I read yesterday, which nicely ties in with Sunday's post. There are some controversial claims surrounding the dangers of low level radiation it would seem, but there's an awful amount of rather paranoid scare mongering by the anti-nuclear lobby taking place too. I for my part think we can't un-invent the technology and we owe an awful lot to it, I'm more concerned about the storage of nuclear waste than the safety of the power plants themselves so, I guess I'm once again comfortable sitting on the fence for the time being.

Deckchairs & Ice Creams

2010-01-11T05:37:00.000-08:00

Deckchairs and Ice Creams ~ Watercolour

Here's the watercolour I've been working on through all the recent ice and snow. It's a bit strange to try to capture a Summer mood with a blizzard going on outside. It's a composite of elements, the old couple, the interior of the kiosk then the kiosk and beach itself all from different sources.

The Coldest Night, The Energy Gap, Then We Zoomed To Norwich!

2010-01-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

TBTE 08/01/10 or more accurately 'the road to the beach this evening'!

We took advantage during this current icy blast, of a break in the snow this afternoon to get artistandtartist jnr. back to university, so the three of us got in the car and zoomed up to Norwich. I was very apprehensive and almost didn't go as driving conditions have been lately described as 'treacherous' on the news, fortunately the snow didn't start again until we were almost home. We talked for the whole journey about loads of interesting stuff...not just the driving conditions, although the current weather did seem to be the dominant theme.
Now this raised the thorny issue of the current fragility of our energy supply, it seems that we really are down to the wire when it comes to our supply of energy, and this situation has simply been waiting in the wings until we experience a prolonged 'cold snap'. Now if we add to the equation all the new build housing thats been springing up were really heaping on the pressure to an energy supply that's already frankly at full stretch. The really big dilemma for us in the U.K. at the moment seems to me to be how to bridge the gap that will inevitably widen between getting our renewable sources of energy on stream and when our own fossil fuel resources run out (about 15 years I think is a reasonable estimate). And thus reduce our reliance on buying in large amounts of our energy from other nations who may whimsically jack the price up...or worse still, turn off the tap completely. At this point in time (several people on Mersea will hate me for saying this) nuclear generators seem to be looking a more attractive solution than they did twenty years back. I'd much prefer that there were a more user friendly alternative, but I'm not at this point persuaded that renewables will come close to filling our energy gap.
Now all of this kind of dovetails into another thread of our conversation we had today about Transition Culture and its pro's & cons, and I intend to get on my soapbox about this subject soon too, when time will allow.

Global 'Cooling' & Red Onion Marmalade

2010-01-06T04:13:00.000-08:00

Whilst our corner of the globe continues it's cooling spell this afternoon the tartist is making about 3kg. of red onion marmalade. As I enter the kitchen my eyes immediately start streaming with the vapour coming from her endeavors, but it's well worth this minor hardship as her red onion marmalade is so delicious.

The view from the studio this afternoon

I for my part am working on a watercolour that I think I'm going to ironically call 'Deckchairs and Ice Creams'. I'm being accompanied this afternoon by the dulcet tones of Elbow, who produced 'The Seldom Seen Kid', one of the albums of the last decade in my humble opinion.

TBTM 04.01.10

2010-01-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

Some of Richard Haward's oysters this morning on their way from our muddy creeks to a dining table somewhere!

Another bright but very cold morning for us on our muddy island, with the thermometer on our car reading -6 when I scraped the ice from the windscreen at 7am. If you are reading this from somwhere like, say Vermont, you must think were all crazy to make such a fuss about a bit of ice. Still, I heard on the BBC this morning that were having our coldest winter here in the U.K. for 25 years, so maybe I can be forgiven for getting a bit carried away.

2010...A New Decade

2010-01-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

Well friends, here we all are on the threshold of a brand year, 'twenty-ten' and once again the snow and ice has returned to our island, in fact the temperature has struggled to get above freezing for about a week. It really has only just dawned upon me that we've not only started a new year, but also just entered a new decade and with it comes the irresistible urge to reflect upon the ramifications of events of the previous one. From this rare vantage point on the cusp of another decade it seems the 'naughties' were to a large extent either sadly dominated by the threat of terrorism or the threat of celebrity. I think it's also true to say that the reality of climate change and its potential effect upon our way of life has become apparent to all of us in the last decade. The irony of this last statement is that the current very cold weather seems set to continue for some time to come.

From a family perspective, particularly sad for the tartist has been the loss of both her parents in the last ten years and we all miss them loads. At the risk of using a cliche the past decade seems not much more than the blink of an eye, with a fair measure of both sadness and joy. On a positive note, in April 2003 we started The Artcafé, our business in West Mersea and then in 2007 we opened our second Artcafé in Colchester and despite the extremely hard work and various problems that jump up and bite us from time to time, we're looking forward to developing further what we do in 2010 with a third strand to our business.

It seems to me a curious human trait, to 'decimalise' our lives into decades but I guess in some way it helps make sense of it all. So here we are looking both forward and back, but mostly forward into 2010! Happy new year, oh, and by the way I insist we all pronounce it 'twenty-ten'

December 24th

2009-12-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well here it is, our final window no. 24. I really can't figure this one out at all, a bizarre little cherub wearing only red socks and gloves brandishing what looks to me like a sprig of good old Euphorbia Pulcherrima. Now if I could I would definately swap this one with December 17th but I can't so it just remains for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas with love and peace for the coming new year!

December 23rd

2009-12-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

Here we have our penultimate window, a sleepy winter scene of a red snow covered cabin with a fire alight set against a beautiful green(?)! sky.

December 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd.

2009-12-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to think someone somewhere has an advent calendar with no santas at all because we've got more than is really necessary or desirable on ours. Anyway starting top left again (clockwise) we have December 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd.

December 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th.

2009-12-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

O.k. friends I've decided the only way to get to the end of this little flight of fancy at such a hectic time of year is to group together some windows. So here goes...Clockwise from top left, No. 14 brings us a right 'mish-mash' of an angel (could be Gabriel, I'm not certain), a Christmas tree with pre-fire regulations candles and the star of Bethlehem. No. 15 showing a most evil looking snowman. No. 16 reveals Santa planning his evenings work and No. 17 a very premature holy infant which if you ask me really should have been in window no.24.

December 13th

2009-12-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

Window no.13, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas etc. etc. etc. bringer of overnight gifts as if by magic to millions of children. I fell in love with Raymond Briggs depiction of him as a somewhat ill tempered old fella living in a normal house with a couple of reindeer and a cat and a dog, way back in the seventies. Interesting to note that we only ever see him now dressed in his red and white garb because of an advertising campaign made by Coca-Cola in the thirties.

December 12th

2009-12-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Window no.12

December 11th

2009-12-11T00:20:00.000-08:00

Window no.11, sorry folks, yet more more schmaltzy victoriana.

December 10th

2009-12-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Window no.10, double figures, brings us what looks to me like a cerub or should that be cerubim? or indeed seruphim, I don't know, I should have listened more in my history of art lectures, that said, this one has been aflicted with ginger hair!

December 9th

2009-12-09T23:32:00.000-08:00

Window No.9, a pre global warming image of a healthy young belle, probably having a nice skate around the frozen village lake. She's just stopped to change the song on her i-pod and remove the mistletoe that the illustrator has placed precariously on her muff!

Mince Pies

2009-12-08T05:16:00.000-08:00

This is why we call her the 'tartist'...mince pies in full production. I have to say I never tire of watching her deftly make her superb pastry and the wonderful smell from our kitchen as they bake.
The history of our humble mince pie goes back centuries but the tartist's never last much longer than about five minutes because they're so delicious, especially warmed up with a 'dollop' of clotted cream. She's selling 'em this year for 50p each, or 75p warmed with the 'afore mentioned cream.

December 8th

2009-12-08T02:14:00.000-08:00

Window no.8, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Poinsettia to you and me.

December 7th

2009-12-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

Window no.7. A bit of a mess this one, Santa is stuck up the chimney (nothing new there) and we finally get to see our toy trumpet but that's about as far as it goes, a bit of a dissapointing window.

December 6th

2009-12-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

Window no.6 shows a Christmas tree. Bringing a fir tree indoors at Christmas was, if I'm not mistaken, one of prince Albert's bright ideas. I can only assume Victoria never minded all the needles dropping off on her carpet. The one in our picture is very definately 'old school' being illuminated with real candles...ahh.

December 5th

2009-12-05T04:09:00.001-08:00

Window no.5, brings us the most kitsch image so far, good ole Father Christmas with the most ludicrously cherub-like infant tangled in his whiskers.

December 4th

2009-12-04T04:10:00.000-08:00

Window no.4 reveals a bell and I have to say the tartist and I were both expecting a toy trumpet for some reason but never mind we have plenty of windows to go. You'll notice the the bell is inscribed with the word Noel which could be a nice little gesture to our Euro-cousins or more likely the word Christmas wouldn't fit. And what type of flowers could they be?

December 3rd

2009-12-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

Window no.3 has all the right ingredients, three nice young ladies carol singing, some wispy snow flakes for good measure and a general warm yuletide glow. my first impression is that butter wouldn't melt in their mouths but I have a sneaky feeling the little girl on the left peeking round the fold might be deliberately singing the alternative 'naughty' lyrics to 'We three kings of orient are!'.

For The Love Of Maisy

2009-12-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Our chef in Colchester Matt and his wife Sophie have a beautiful 5 year old daughter called Maisy. She has cerebral palsy, severe epilepsy is visually impaired with learning and developemental delays and she could do with some more equipment and therapy to make life more pleasurable.

We're holding a fundraising event at the Mersea Centre (M.I.C.A.) on Saturday 12th December and James' band 'Skandal' are playing free of charge to help us raise at least £1,000 for Maisy. Please come along, tickets are now on sale at the Artcafé and M.I.C.A. Centre price £10.

December 2nd

2009-12-02T04:13:00.001-08:00

Window no.2 and bang on the money, a picture of Joseph and Mary already. I wasn't expecting them so soon, this is more like a window no.24 image if you ask me. You'll see I've included some surrounding glitter to put things in context, and the observant amongst you will notice that the tartist in her enthusiasm this morning has ripped the window giving a tantalising glimpse behind window no.11! Now, sorry to get picky but Joseph, Mary and the newborn baby 'J' seem to be heading east past the pyramids heading them wildly in the wrong direction, unless of course Herod has already popped his clogs in which case its a bit early for window no.2.

December 1st

2009-12-01T14:34:00.001-08:00

Window no.1 in all it's splendour, a secular image to start the ball rolling, nothing too heavy, a snow man and woman in what appear to be 'dickensian' hats holding a candle each.

Advent

2009-11-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

We managed to find a good old fashioned advent calender today. No Disney, no chocolates, no advertising just the sort we had as children.

And just like a couple of children we've popped it up on our fridge and are looking forward to window number one tomorrow. Deep joy for just a pound...watch this space!

A New Shop & A New Partner

2009-11-19T02:35:00.000-08:00

In case you're wondering 'have the artistandtartist been kidnapped by Somali pirates or worse...Tollesbury pirates'? then here's a post to allay your fears. The tartist and I have been deeply submerged in the planning stages of a new venture to enhance the Artcafé business and more importantly what we can offer our lovely customers. So unfortunately the blogosphere has had to take a back seat in recent weeks. Intrigued? Well, we've just taken on a new premises two doors down from our Mersea café in Coast Road and have been transferring our office (filing cabinets, computers, desks and box files etc.) from our spare bedroom at home, to this new shop. The next step will be to create a bigger and better kitchen/prep. room at the rear behind the office to better cope with all of the cake baking etc. so that we can continue our 'homemade' ethos on a larger scale. As for the new shop at the front, well, this we will be fitting out after the Christmas break.

In addition to a new shop we've also aquired a new business partner Jenny, our eldest daughter. Jenny has been working for us for nearly three years now and we felt it was high time that she had an equal say in the way things are done at the artcafé. Jenny brings with her a background in retail and has been training in the kitchen under the tartist's tutelage for some time now.

Our new partner Jenny

We've been amused by some of the stories and gossip that has got back to us as to what use our new shop will be put. The truth is we intend to be selling all the popular things that we make ourselves at the Artcafé over the counter for you to enjoy at home, on your boat, in your garden, at your beach hut...wherever. In addition to this we will be offering lots of good quality food and 'foodie' stuff and I expect it's getting a bit boring to say 'local', 'free-range', 'organic' etc. when talking about food...but that's exactly what we'll be aiming for here on Mersea.
Don't be surprised to find some food related art for sale on our walls here too.

So with all this buzzing around in our heads we took a bit of a reconnaissance party to Borough Market a couple of weeks back to get a few ideas to add to the ones we already have and what an eye opener it proved.

The tartist eyes up someone else's cupcakes

...and gateaux

We found fruit and veg. of the finest quality, and more varieties of wild and 'tame' edible fungi than you could wave a stick at!

Not everyone's cup of tea but we found wonderfully fresh meat and game and at Neal's Yard Dairy, floor to ceiling cheeses from Britain and Ireland.

To enable everything we've gleaned so far to sink in and also so that we don't push ourselves too hard we've provisionally set a date to open our new shop on the 1st March 2010. So expect more news as things progress over the coming weeks...and we'll try not to leave it so long this time!

TBTE 04.10.09 ~ Strood Channel

2009-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

So already it is October, blimey October again with all of its sunsetty golden splendour and a dew on the grass most mornings. my father has just turned 70, making me very aware of the passage of time...not just for him but for all of us. We had a good old family gathering yesterday with birthday cake and photo albums to help him celebrate. And now the baby of the artistandtartist family has recently left for university, making us all feel a bit older and reaching another milestone for us as a family.

Starbucks

2009-09-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

I can remember clearly the first time I had a coffee in a Starbucks café. It was quite a few years ago now, an in store branch in Selfridges in London. I can't recall what I was doing there in the first place but I do recall thinking 'oo-er so this is what they're like' as I stood in line with my plastic tray trying to decipher their almost impenetrable coffee jargon. I clearly remember the first Mc Donalds 'restaurant' coming to London too, but that's another story. Now, the disappointment of my first Starbucks experience is still clear in my mind and my opinion about the overpriced product I queued up for is still the same today, although I now know a shedload more about how decent coffee ought to be enjoyed.

Here are a few points to illustrate what mean

1/ Cappuccino (and more especially espresso) should be served in a porcelain, bowl shaped cup, kept nice and hot on top of your machine (the bowl shape helps retain the 'crema') and not in a flat bottomed 'builder's' mug.

2/ The ideal cappuccino ratio is approx. 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk & 1/3 Foam. Not 2/3 Foam 1/3 'tepid' espresso.

3/ The customer should always be offered a coffee spoon and not have to delve through his/her foam with a 'lolly stick'

4/ The beverage should still be nice and hot when it reaches the customer (especially Café Latte) not just warm to facilitate faster turnover of tables.

I could go on but I think you see what I mean, so, you can imagine our amusement yesterday upon reading this little piece in yesterday's Guardian...

Am I wrong in feeling that somehow that little vignette enshrines all that is both socioculturally unappetising and fiscally unsound about Starbucks? Not at all. Socioculturally, it is obvious that few independent coffee-dispensing entities are likely to survive the homogenising onslaught. And as for fiscal weakness – well, yes, it turns out that if your business model involves saturating local markets, no matter what the rental cost of many prestigious locations, with products made with imported coffee and aimed particularly at the young and affluent, especially those working in the banking and finance sectors, you inadvertently create the conditions for the perfect shitstorm once demand and sterling collapse. Ta-daaa!

TBTE 29.09.09

2009-09-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

It is somewhat reassuring that in this digital era of gigantic flat screens, i-pods and ever decreasing attention spans that watching the sun set over Feldy marshes is still a deeply satisfying thing to experience. This evening Mabel (our Lab.) and I watched for twenty minutes as the sun went below the horizon and with hardly a breath of wind, mirror like, the creek reflected the sky. This scene with the exception of a few details has been the same for centuries.

Colchester Open Studios

2009-09-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

My Little Studio

Well, 'Open Studios' has started today, so if you'd like to come and see me and my little garden studio please drop in. My opening times are 26th & 27th September 11.00am ~ 6.00pm and 3rd & 4th October 11.00am ~ 6.00pm...I'd be pleased to see you. For more detailed information about the various participating artists and their opening times take a peek at 'Colchester Open Studios'

Open Studios

2009-09-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

'The Packing Shed' ~ Watercolour

It's that time of year again when participating artists open their studios to the general public on selected weekends as part of 'Colchester Open Studios'. So, for me and many others, things have been getting rather hectic in preparation for the event. This in part is responsible for the appalling dearth of posts in recent weeks and for this I apologise but my paints and brushes have had to take priority.

SFTW ~ Blue Lips

2009-08-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

...I thought this was so brilliant I downloaded the whole album!

A Thunderstorm Over TBTE

2009-08-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the dodgy mobile phone photo but thetartist, tartist junior and I tracked this thunderstorm as it came up the River Blackwater this evening and passed out into the North Sea. It was a quite impressive sight as the sun set behind, so I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

A Pint & A Sunset

2009-08-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

The Tartist, Mabel our dog and I took a lovely walk last night along the beach...thanked our lucky stars that we live on this muddy island and ended up with a pint at the Coast Inn watching the sunset, bloomin' lovely!

The Silly Season

2009-08-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

'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

2009-07-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

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!

A Threat To Brush & Paint?

2009-07-28T05:09:00.000-07:00

Is this the death of painting as we know it or just another medium to explore? Discuss.

A Week In North Cornwall

2009-07-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this a week ago, sorry folks a very busy Artcafé intervened.

The tartist, theartistandtartist jnr. and myself (theartist) just got back yesterday from a long overdue week away in Cornwall, Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel to be precise.

View across Trebarwith Strand

Now, to cut a long story short the tartist and I used to live in Trebarwith Strand, in fact it is where we first met, in the Trebarwith Strand Hotel, which the tartist owned and ran with her sister from 1978 to 1991 along with the (way ahead of it's time restaurant) 'The House On The Strand'. Now to be fair the weather was very, well, 'Cornish' and we'd both forgotten how the rain can sometimes fall horizontally for days on end up the valley. For a couple of nights the wind and rain rattled the windows, and we were reminded of the terrible flooding that Boscastle, just up the road from us, received in 2004.

Artist Jnr. on the beach

Our weather related fears didn't last though as we got a couple of days of wonderful sunshine where we enjoyed the spectacular beauty of Trebarwith beach without our raincoats and umbrellas. A feature of our visits to this part of Cornwall is a meal at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow which the tartist and I along with four of our very good friends vowed to attend once a year come rain or shine several years ago. This year I'm pleased to say we kept the tradition alive, me with an exquisite piece of Turbot, baked and served with Hollandaise and the tartist with chargrilled Dover Sole with Sea Salt and Lime preceeded by a Selection of Oysters on Ice & Ragout of Turbot and Scallop with Vouvray & Basil.

The Tartist at The Seafood Restaurant

The following day saw us take a trip just up the coast to the small but dramatic beach of Crackinton Haven in many respects similar to Trebarwith with imposing cliffs on either side, good surfing and a great little café where we enjoyed real homemade soup and pretty decent coffee. Crackington also has the most fabulous rounded smooth stones on its foreshore which kept us amused for ages, sifting sorting and admiring the veins of pink and white quartz.

Crackington Haven

Although the rain was a bit unwelcome I managed to get in a bit of sketching with judiciously timed sorties to the beach and the aid of a golfing brolly, with which I caught a gust of wind and turned inside out!

Another feature of our visit (as is often the case) was a trek across the breathtaking cliffs to Tintagel to pick up pasties for lunch from Pengenna. I was accompanied on this occasion by artist junior and we stopped frequently on route to take in the spectacular views across the bay, returning with our lunch after ice creams and a stroll around the Norman church of St. Materiana perched high on Glebe Cliff overlooking the castle.

Artist Jnr. on the seat above Penhallic Point

The view out to Gull Rock

No post about a visit to Trebarwith could be complete without a mention of our good mates 'Grip' and Kirsty who run
The Strand Café who kept our chins up when the rain came with hot chocolates, cappuccinos and some of the best chocolate & walnut brownies I've ever tasted. Sadly this will be their last season in the valley so if you're down that way do stop by and say 'hi' from the artist and tartist, and sample some of their wares, you won't be dissapointed.

Grip & Kirsty

So here we are back on flat old Mersea Island and yes, it's still raining, but I've a feeling we'll return to North Cornwall soon, hopefully before the year is out.

Problem Solved

2009-07-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Snoozing ~ Watercolour
...correct colours this time!

The Fourth Plinth

2009-07-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

'Plimsole Line' ~ Watercolour

It's Antony Gormley's turn on the Fourth Plinth, starting today.

A Watercolour & Independence Day

2009-07-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sunshine Over The Huts ~ Watercolour

I was trying to find something appropriately 'warm' for this current heatwave we've been having and was rummaging in my painting archives when I stumbled upon this, painted in July 2007, it has rather too much blue to feel really hot but it will have to do for now. Oh, I nearly forgot to give a little nod to our neighbors across the water (no, not Tollesbury, stupid).

Happy Independence Day.

...I'm Filled With Gladness!

2009-06-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

The tartist and I got home from work yesterday both flagging from the exertion of feeding and watering our customers in the tropical heat of this current sunny spell and put our feet up and turned the T.V. on in order to watch what was left of this year's Glastonbury music festival. We were not dissapointed, about to take to the stage were Madness, those erstwhile exponents of 'cockney ska' and purveyors of umpteen hit records over the past 30 years (go on, count 'em!).

There I sat grinning from ear to ear with our telly turned up nice and loud as Suggs and his nutty band of merry men entertained as if it was 1980 again playing hit after hit mixed with songs from their most recent concept album (yes Madness have just released a concept album) 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. Why is the artist waxing lyrical so? I hear you ask. Well, when I first heard madness' music it had an immediate and profound effect on me, so much so I immediatly replaced my dreadful seventies 'mullet' for a No.3 back and sides, bought myself a crombie coat, fred perry shirt and Doc. Martens. This was music coming from my generation and here they are still, men mostly in their early fifties, still vital, still cool, still able to 'work' a crowd and as I watched the Glastonbury crowd, some in safari suits, pith helmets & false moustaches, some with lime green wigs even a chap on an inflatable sofa crowd surfing and just for a short while my faith in humanity was restored...to quote the nutty boys 'if this is madness then I'm filled with gladness'!

Our Friend Joan

2009-06-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

Today we took a break from the heat of the café to join our friend Joan at her 85th birthday party. We first met Joan when the Artcafé was in its infancy about six years ago and she's been a regular customer and we have become firm friends. One of the things we're particularly proud of at the café is that people of all ages (including 85 year olds) feel perfectly comfortable sitting on their own passing the time with a coffee. In fact the tartist and I have witnessed many blossoming friendships and one or two love stories as a result of sitting with a coffee in the Artcafé. This for us is a really important function of a business such as ours, not just the food and drink but providing a meeting place for people of all ages and tastes etc. So, happy birthday Joan from theartistandthetartist!

2009-06-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

Snoozing ~ Watercolour
This is weird, somehow blogger is inverting colours at the moment. I've tried posting this picture several times with the same strange result, anyhow I'll wait and see if anyone else is getting muddled up colours, then try again.

TBTE

2009-06-23T13:42:00.001-07:00

I had a most agreeable spot of dinner with the tartist this fine evening at The Coast Inn, overlooking the fleet as we islanders like to call the three muddy channels you can see in the distance. You will have also noticed the two pint glasses containing our beverages, often (for me especially) these would contain something very much darker and 'hoppy', but not this evening. You see I become quite a sucker for this trend of cider drinking, not that cider drinking is in any way a new concept, but the simple idea of filling a pint glass full of ice then pouring your pint of cider over it is, I think, a stroke of genius. On such a warm late June evening it made a perfect accompaniment to my fish and chips. Then with the sun still warm on our backs we walked up the gentle incline towards home, feeling quite fortunate to live on this muddy Essex island.

SFTW ~ Oi Va Voi

2009-06-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

I was painting in my studio last night with the radio as company when this came on, my ears pricked up and I thought 'hello...this I like, trumpet, violin, clarinet, guitar playing electro/Yiddish/eastern European melodies...mmm'. I don't know why I haven't heard them before, but there you go, perhaps some of you too are not yet familiar with Oi Va Voi, so, just in case they're my SFTW (something for the weekend) this week. Have a good weekend cosmonauts.

2009-06-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

Sun Lounger ~ Pencil + Wash 5mins.

Summer Café

2009-06-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

David Britton a Mersea artist and poet whose book of poems, paintings and articles is on sale at the Artcafé, wrote this lovely poem from the café terrace the other day. The tartist and I were so taken with it we decided to share it here.

Summer Café

A wedge of town-leafiness
Shadows my chosen corner.
And I consider - coffee, and town-doings
And the work of wisdom that I've brought along
- in no particular order -
They circle around each other, nodding and bowing
Smiling, and giving way-
For none of them has natural precedence here
And all of them know
Their hour and season will come
Without a jousting or jostling.

I stir the voices from the street
Into my coffee.
And the lime leaves out there
Sweetened with air and light
These too go in.
And the roast coffee aroma
Is the first sentence
In my now opened book.

And I consider, that all the wisdom of philosophy
Might be for the sake
Of this, another morning of huge gratefulness
This light and equable noise
This aroma from a high place.

I find in my book
Some sentiments perhaps too harsh, too bitter.
Coffee and sunshine mellow them -
Coffee and sunshine the wise tutors
The completers of schooling, of being.

For perhaps one work of wisdom is done
When one can lean back and smile
In the good place-the café where one needs to be alone
But needs the others there to make that possible.

Such joy within our grasp can make us tremble.
And yes philosophy has done its work
When at the back of our most peaceful smile
A greater, then a greater smile, assemble.

David Britton ~ June 2009

Sociology On The Seawall

2009-06-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from an evening walk around the seawall equipped with 'artist jnr.' and his sociology revision cards and Mabel our black lab. As we strolled he revised for his A-level tomorrow, I helped as best I could and Mabel padded around and sniffed a lot, as she does. We were treated with a fabulous Mersea evening as the sun set below Wigborough hill and the tide slid silently up the Strood channel, as it does.

Tomorrow is not only artist jnr's sociology a-level exam but it is also his first opportunity to exercise his democratic right to vote for the very first time which I'm proud to say he's thinking about very seriously. Rather ironically many of the topics on his revision cards reflected current affairs to the letter. For example Sutherland's work on 'White Collar Crime' cropped up and we talked about recent scandals involving M.P's trousering tax payer's money. Strange times are these where relatively modest expenses fiddles look more likely to put an end to this government's reign than the highly unpopular Iraq war.

As the sun sank lower over Strood channel the light and shadows became very dramatic and the three of us made our way off the seawall, between the fields of ripening rapeseed towards home and the end of a very agreeable stroll.

Trouble At The bank

2009-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yorick Road 8.45 am

My walk to work this morning was fairly unremarkable except in one respect, as I passed the end of Yorick Road there was an attempted armed robbery in progress at Barclays bank. I took a hasty couple of pictures on my mobile phone then with the arrival of a police armed response team I decided the sensible thing would be to stop 'rubber necking' and get myself off to the safe distance of the Artcafé and a cup of coffee. Later this morning I set out for the Colchester café only to find the police had completely sealed off Mersea Island at the Strood, great drama indeed.

TBTE26.05.09

2009-05-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

The 'Old Victory' flies the union flag.

Took a lovely walk this evening with the excuse of gathering some reference material for a commission and as it turned out I had the place to myself for the couple of hours I was out. The wind was blustery and the sun was bright and low creating marvellous shadows, on an evening like this I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

View From Artist H.Q.

2009-05-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

Washing Line ~ Pastel

This is pretty much the view from the studio towards our house. I am aware that our rotating line complete with sunlit washing is wonky or as we island natives prefer to say 'on the huh!' In fact the tartist is often reminding me of its need for replacement.

SFTW ~ Catfood Sandwiches

2009-05-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

This man can make wonderful music with anything that has strings on and has a very rare sense of humour, he's my favourite guitar player, (with the possible exception of Ry Cooder) no doubt about that. I hope this will help ease you into the weekend too!

Ginger Cake & Coffee & Custard

2009-05-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

The tartist and I have just enjoyed an afternoon cappuccino accompanied by a slice of Jenny's Double Ginger Cake which is a new arrival at the Artcafé. Our Jenny has certainly inherited the tartist gene if her new cake is anything to go by, a very moist and substantially gingery cake which prompted us immediately to discuss how comfortably ginger as a flavour sits with coffee. There are certain obvious partners to coffee, chocolate for example or vanilla or almond perhaps but I hadn't really thought of ginger before this afternoon's slice of ginger cake and it was something of a minor revelation. A bit off topic but still on the subject of ginger cake, Jenny's recipe came up in conversation and Clare from Colchester Artcafé revealed that she used to have ginger cake and custard as a pudding, then the tartist piped up and said 'ooh yeah my mum used to do it too in our house' and I have to confess there were many times when we as kids were treated to McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake and Birds custard as a pudding (quite often after Cubs whilst watching Z-Cars or Rising Damp). Now I recon this combination was possibly going on in the seventies up and down the land and I'd be curious to learn if anyone else had this as a pud. in their household at the time?

TBTE29.04.09

2009-04-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

My stroll along the beach this evening revealed this latest act of vandalism/arson on several beach huts, with the firemen still damping things down. This is becoming a serious problem here on the island and to state the obvious I don't understant it. Beach huts are essentially such benign pieces of architecture after all and don't seem to me to be an obvious target for vandalism, compared to say, local authority property, but then I'm not a vandal. Perhaps if the people who did this are found they'll be made to build and paint new ones for their victims...now there's a thought, a beach maintenance working party as a sort of rehab. for vandals (with no ice creams!).

Work Experience

2009-04-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

Meet Toby, he's at the Artcafé in Mersea this week doing his work experience with us. He's helping us with our day to day chores and hopefully learning lots in the process about café life and the world of work. Actually Toby isn't exactly a stranger to us as he's James and Maggies nephew.

2009-04-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Some like it hot...and small!

Easter

2009-04-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

Our busiest weekend of the year is upon us and the lion share of the catering work as usual falls upon the tartist. In addition to this we've had a fair amount of upheaval to contend with lately and I have to say she's coping admirably, I'm so proud of her. So yesterday after a really busy day's business and after we'd done most of the clearing up and prep. for today we took a short stroll over the road to the church for some moments contemplation...it comes in handy being opposite such a place at times. I have to add we also avail ourselves of the public house opposite in equal measure, for a tray of drinks, after a busy shift too but yesterday we were thirsty for some quiet time.

So with chocolate eggs at the ready we began our easter Sunday at the artcafé this morning.