spring, er, autumn is in the air

i am spring cleaning in autumn! man, it feels good. no obligations, just really planning and do. last summer i laid down the laminate on the second floor. this winter i will be decorating both top rooms. 

i am also rearranging {and therefore uncovering the power of} my pinterest boards. i want them to work for me on a regular basis, and they still come at computer screen level, as opposed to instagram. 

i want all social media i am tending to really work for me, rather than dangle about and being useless. and i see that i'm hardly socializing at all, but sharing mainly creative endeavour. 

my creative intentions are pushed on towards 2019. i am now really trying for peace and quiet, home building and drawing for pleasure. i'm open to slow commission, but it'll probably be just ordered by me only. 


past exhibition weekends were fun. i met a whole lot of enthusiast people, confirming heritage is a part of our lives, and it's never a bad idea to stress it some, because heritage bonds people. 

i fully understand now drawing house fronts is a subject that will stick. drawing while guessing the stories behind the façades,... the fix never fails to fill me with inner repose and gratitude. 

i'll be returning to my town's ABC poster before long. we've been playing in the september #JohnVernonLord tiny drawing challenge but i'm guessing i'll give inktober2018 a miss. never mind, hat full of tricks!  

are you having good times? enjoy your sunday and a new week to come ♥


extremely long UK blogpost for the brave only


deal seafront, the royal hotel. i didn't stay there
coming back from my tiny holiday in the united kingdom i am now enjoying its aftermath, which is every inch as pleasant as its preamble. i learned a thing or two on how not to organize holidays. 

deal seafront boat yard detail
mental note : view the lodgings of choice beforehand. be sure your travel itinerary moves towards a crescendo, not away from it. sometimes you run out of luck, can't be helped. 
deal seafront, now there's my hotel in the middle
i'd decided to pay a visit to both the south east coast of kent and london. it was a bundle of pure joy that boarded the train into deal from st pancras. next i found the hotel on the seafront in a jiffy, just as i foresaw. 
canterbury park lane
funnily enough i decided to get straight back onto a train, a local into canterbury, for i had a greyish afternoon to spend. i walked about under a lead sky and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting unchanged spots.
deal high street charity shop
i climbed simmons hill on the city wall and got just a little drenched. on the railway bridge i talked to a couple of anti 'brexit-ers', who are keeping hopes up high all can still be turned back to how things were. 
evening image of my tiny room
as i slowly made my way back to the coast, and finally checked into my hotel room, my fear of being gallantly offered the broom stick cupboard (for travelling single) materialized. 
deal street messaging ☻
i faced a mirror hung up too high, the small single bed housed the sveltest springy matress i’d ever witnessed. the bed's headboard grazed the water closet wall in the adjacent communal bathroom. glory! 
deal evening stroll
a few sockets didn't work, so i prepared tea from the floor. i ran straight out into the mild evening. an invigorating stroll along the beach would do. 
deal high street charity shop
that first night's sleep was truly unpleasant. in the morning i discovered the pencil-thin matress lay upside down even, resulting in a less than comfortable touch. i whacked it over. 
hotel breakfast egg benedicte
in the breakfast room i consoled myself on a heartening egg benedicte and wandered off inland to sandwich. 
sandwich 
i felt it was heating up outside. the rope walk in the tiny historic town led me to its bustling centre where two bus loads of tourists had just been unleashed. i found myself a quiet spot that quickly dwindeled. i moved on. 
ramsgate seafront
i traveled to ramsgate. i have memories of the place, but i recognized not a thing nor house until i got as far as the seafront. it is a bit of a walk down to the front. 
ramsgate high street
thanet towns have a bad reputation. i should know, i lived in one in the eighties. not only felt ramsgate desolate, it was exactly that. lively enough in a sense, terrificly bleak at its fringes. 
broadstairs clock tower on w cliff promenade
i would indulge in that feeling the next day, making it into broadstairs, sunning a little before finding the courage to be on my walking way into margate along the seafront. 
up viking bay
i didn’t know how to get off the cliff so i had to plough through bourgeois wasteland and barren hay. once having cornered king’s bay, i finally had opportunity to stumble down unelegant steps onto hard beach sands.
palm beach
margate came into view, but in reality it was still a long way off. by now i was so tired i could have just stretched out flat. if it wasn’t for a handful of screaming kids i would have. 
walpole bay
i made it into turner contemporary the dishevelled way and devoured a piece of lemon cake while downing an organic lemonade at record speed. 
sandwich railway station, i haven't got one of margate
margate’s high street top end giving me the shivers just like it always does, i tumbled straight back down to the railway station and patiently awaited the arrival of my train back home. 
deal evening stroll alonf seafront
the evening was beautiful. i discovered deal's georgian old town by chance and fell in love with the evening sunlight kissing those pastel homefronts in sherbet hues, highlighting their disputed gentrified charm. 
deal shingle beach, morning image i think
i stayed long on the shingle beach afterwards, like the stones were telling me stories of old. i would have so liked to outstay my welcome, but...  
on the bus to dover
i would have to leave early the next morning to stick to my plans. that's how i discovered i should have visited london before the seaside, not afterwards. 
kenwood house hampstead heath
it wasn't the london mob nor the noise that bothered me, it was me. i bothered, and i bothered myself. i tried to make it work, and lo and behold, i made something out of it.
into the city
i had intentions. i wanted to spend time with edward bawden and enid marx, respectively in dulwich and in king's cross. both exhibitions pleased me no end. 
regent's canal
earlier on i’d {traditionally} gotten lost on the heath after visiting kenwood house. later i enjoyed strolling along regent’s canal. they were good walks after all, in varying company of strangers, dogs and bugs. 
king's cross housing developments
i didn’t manage much more besides revisiting favourite hang outs such as bookshops and regent street (don’t ask me why). king’s cross has come up in the world. it's amazing what a rejuvenated gas holder can look like. ....
bethnal green V&A, Rachel Whiteread
it's appalling though how this area is being done up for the rich and lonely. unless i would be shamelessly mistaking, but those gigantic billboards didn't leave a thing to the imagination.
this is before i left, eurostar terminal brussels
yeah. glad to come home and now to reminisce, treat my sore feet, and get all of the uk fodder seep in, through the cracks of my imagination and into illustration land. i hope. 
if you aren't done here, there's more to see here. thank you for staying with me. ☺

seafront, bawden and marx

ramsgate, walking down to the seafront
i was traveling last week. i sailed ☻ into thanet and spent a few days and nights in Deal, visiting Canterbury, Ramsgate and Broadstairs. old loves, new winds. the weather gods were loving me affably.
deal, first and only house front i drew
the tiny hotel i was staying in had been so kind to offer this single woman travelling a back broom cupboard, complete with awful springy bed and a mirror hung up so high i had to practically jump up to have a look in. 
deal, edwardian area
i had no immediate sea view, except for when i took breakfasts in the mornings. then i set on my way walking up and down the coast line and into the edwardian part of town, lusting over its architectural affluence. 
joss bay, between ramsgate and broadstairs

walking my poor feet into blisters, and my old clothes into holes (right) i shopped like a true shopaholic, unfolding my emergency traveller's bag on my way back home through pasture and channel tunnel. 
london, V&A childhood bethnal green, rachel whiteread, place (village)

that was after i stopped in whitechapel for a few more nights, to try and catch the capital's vibes, which wasn't easy. i kept thinking i should have planned my journey the other way round : first haste, then sea breeze. 
V&A, hall

i made my way into dulwich for a street lunch, after i very much enjoyed the eric bawden show that was ending. i was so impressed by the artist's oeuvre and peace of mind all through his creative years. 
king's cross, housing development area in redundant gas holders. creative (only for the rich....)

yesterday i walked around the kings cross area to find the house of illustration and an exhibition by enid marx. it struck me both bawden and marx had the opportunity to create for bigguns in their times. 
hampstead heath, kenwood house staircase

bawden landed repetitive commissions for a.o. fortnum and mason and kew gardens (not even mentioning the tube posters) and marx designed those wonderfully vibrant fabric tube seat covers, to name but one. 
cromwell road, taxi stand

it made me think about the importance of finding the right crowd in the right time in history, offering the right design, all while sticking to proper beliefs and ethics, and keeping on creating, no matter what. 
fotzrovia mosaic

it gave me a good and confident feeling to find proof of the continuity of their timeless design, which is a thing i highly believe in myself. besides all that, i gawped admiringly at their work.  
having a tea break in sandwich, the best icecream ever, hence gone ☺

i do am getting my skates on now in the last stretch into the two upcoming exhibition weekends. i'm gonna be on the go for just a bit longer, until my own peacable, yet creative pace returns.  
enjoy the weekend, and have a jolly good week ahead. ♥