Isle of Thanet Kent : a Creative Isle

Learning a new skill, such as art, while on holiday has become a trend in recent years but for some people art classes can be transformative. As I enter Hold Creative Studio and Gallery in Ramsgate on the Isle of Thanet I must admit to a sense of foreboding. At school, I came bottom in art, and when I mentioned to my mother prior to my trip I was going to take part in an abstract art session, she simply laughed.

But soon my misgivings seemed insignificant.

Hold Creative Studio and Gallery Ramsgate

I meet Lucy Troubridge, the co-director of Hold at their studio space in the centre of Ramsgate. Lucy is to lead our session, but first she shows me the studio introducing me to David, one of the local artists who hires a space here. Before long Bev joins us. Bev established Hold four years ago but today like me, she is just one of the ‘artists’.

Lucy makes me a coffee as she explains the ethos behind not-for-profit Hold, which has a small gallery space on Queens Street in Ramsgate, where they hold free exhibitions at no charge for local artists, as well as these studios.

Hold holds (hence the name) classes, exhibitions and other creative activities including the abstract art class I have signed up for. Anyone can join although Lucy restricts numbers to six. They also have clay classes, woodcarving for wellbeing and plan to re-introduce still life.

In the centre of the table is a pair of guitars joined at the hip. This is to be the subject for our art. Before long Zara, her daughter Ellie, and Ellie’s carer Sheena join us, as well as Lorraine, who is the editor of the local Broadstairs Beacon.

We start with blind drawing, which involves us looking at the guitar but not at the paper in front of us. This is supposed to be liberating, although I find my eyes drifting towards the paper to ensure my ink links up.

The conversation between my companions, who clearly all know each other, flows much more naturally than my brush across the paper.

Lucy plays various guitar classics as a soundtrack to help our creativity, before instructing us to focus on the detail of the object before us, its lines, shades and flow, rather than looking at the object as a whole.

We finish one drawing and then start on another this time with us permitted to look at the paper.

I soon discover that Ellie comes here each week. She is wheelchair bound and has a form of muscular dystrophy. In constant pain managed by medication, she was not expected to live as long as she has – 22 years, her mother explains.

“It’s my safe spot,” Ellie says when I ask her why she comes to Hold each week. “I cannot think about medication and hospital.”

At school, Ellie was told she could not draw. But she has found confidence in abstract art, where everything is allowed. Her art “is just a little but different,” she explains. She has just sold her first work.

We move on to another sheet and another, each time with Lucy urging us to focus on the object more closely. I discover myself noticing things I had not initially seen. I find it most therapeutic and restful. Eventually Lucy provides us with colour ink. I mix the colours up and drop water on the paper marvelling in how the ink spreads. Then I lift up the paper and allow the ink to flow naturally across it, as if musical notes. I am engrossed by the shapes it makes.

As we progress from one sheet to another, Lucy collects our sheets and hangs them up against the wall. I feel mine is still regimented by form and conformity, whereas Ellie’s is full of movement and vitality. But just like Ellie I have found the experience liberating.

Ed Clark at the Turner Contemporary Margate

After my class I check into the delightful San Clu hotel with its great views overlooking Ramsgate beach. I don’t have much time to enjoy the views before I head back into town to enjoy some fish and chips – and seagull dodging – and then catch a gig at the Ramsgate Music Hall. A great small venue, it really took me back to the first time I came to the Isle of Thanet – back in the late 80s – although sadly I don’t think that experimental heavy is a genre that I will be following too closely.

The following morning after a hearty breakfast at the San Clu, I check out and drive along the coast to Margate to view the Ed Clark exhibition at the Turner Contemporary.

Born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago, Clark (1926 to 2019) is seen as a leading figure in the New York School of Abstraction. His breakthrough came when he moved to Paris in 1952. He felt France offered him, as a black American, opportunities he was denied in his own country.

Clark is seen as a pioneer of shaped canvases and the push broom technique that allowed him to make enormous swathes across his paintings.

The exhibition at the Turner Contemporary is divided into four rooms which chronologically chart his work from the 50s through to the early 2000s. Many of the works on display have not been seen outside of the US.

In 1971, Clark travelled to Crete, where he discovered a totally new palette. Subsequently he visited Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil, China and Japan. All of which had a profound influence upon his work.

Clark was much more interested in the materials he used than the subject matter. In 1997, he told the poet Quincy Troup, “The real truth is in the stroke … large, bold strokes that do not refer distinctly to seen nature. The paint is the subject. The motions of the strokes give the work life.”

After my art class at Hold, I can relate to these sentiments.

Afternoon Tea at the Walpole Bay Hotel

Earlier in the day I had checked into the Walpole Bay Hotel in Cliftonville on the outskirts of Margate.

Built in 1914, with extensions in 1927 including the still functioning and quite wonderful Otis trellis gate lift, the hotel closed in 1989 and was close to being demolished when rescued by Jane Bishop and husband Peter six years’ later.

The couple have converted the hotel into a timeless museum of artefacts inherited and donated over the last 30 years as well as the Walpole Napery, a unique collection of napkin art. The latter was started in 2009 when Curtis Tappenden who was taking tea at the Walpole, demanded a linen napkin. When Jane explained they only used paper napkins due to the cost of laundering linen ones, Tappenden demanded she produce him a linen one, upon which he created a work of art which he gave to her.

There are now 323 napkins in the collection – thankfully despite my art lesson the previous day I did not make it 324. Anyone can add to the collection, Jane’s only request is that it captures a ‘magical memory’ of staying or having afternoon tea at the Walpole.

The most famous artist to have her napkins in the Napery is Dame Tracey Emin, who first came to the hotel for afternoon tea in 1995, taking her mum Pam. Emin first described the Walpole as the most romantic place in the world to take your lover in Time Out – which led to some most unusual requests. She also informed GQ magazine the best sex she had ever was in Room 302, the room in which I stayed, according to Jane.

The relationship between Emin and the Walpole has continued since that initial tea when Emin was effing and blinding on the terrace. Emin opened the museum in 2001, and donated two napkins, The Banshee of Margate and Special & Happy Place to Jane, both of which are on display in the hotel’s restaurant.

My tea was delightful, easily one of the best I have had in the UK. Crusts were removed from the cucumber sandwiches, the scones were light and fluffy and the lemon cake drizzled delightful. Time stood still for a while as Frank Sinatra crooned away in the background.

Angela’s and a Turner Sunset on the Isle of Thanet

Margate is renowned for its spectacular sunsets, which Turner greatly admired, and indirectly led to the opening of the gallery named after him.

Retracing my steps along the coast path beyond the Turner Contemporary, I first have a Sea Scrub Sauna on the beach, before dining at Angela’s an intimate restaurant in the centre of the old town which has won a Michelin Green Star and serves the most incredible fish.

Then I grab a pint and join the throng waiting for the sun to drift slowly beneath the horizon. It had been an unusually wonderful Summer’s day, and the sunset did not disappoint. I have seen many a sunset in my travels around the world, and few can compare with Margate’s. As the sun doused its rays in the waters and the sky glowed orange, it was clear why the area has inspired many an artist in the past and will continue to long into the future. It is as timeless as the Walpole.

Hold Creative Studio and Gallery

For more details on Hold’s classes and exhibitions, click here.

Accommodation on the Isle of Thanet

In Ramsgate Mark stayed at the San Clu Hotel, which is a lovely traditional hotel on the clifftop with great views down to Ramsgate beach as well as a fitness centre should you wish to keep in trim – but who would need it with all those great coastal walks.

To book a room or afternoon tea at the Walpole, Margate, click here.

Turner Contemporary

For details if what is currently showing at the Turner Contemporary go to: Turner Contemporary.

Things To Do on the Isle of Thanet

For more information on the things to do in the Isle of Thanet, go to www.visitthanet.co.uk.