Map for Broadstairs Folk Week 2026

© Peter Gander

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555,000 visits to date! Thank you.

Peter Gander

Mitchells & Butler Toby Carve-Up cartoon

 A subject close to my heart, as a child I used to climb the many mature trees here at Whitewebbs, Enfield when I lived in Freezywater.

Shocking standards, shame on you Mitchells & Butlers, (owners of not only Toby Carvery but All Bar One; Nicholson's; O'Neil's; Harvester; Ember Inns and Miller & Carter too).
The Story: (BBC)
An ancient oak felled in a north London park on the order of Toby Carvery's owners was healthy and could have lived "for another few hundred years", the leader of the local council has said.
Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) said on Tuesday it was responsible for chopping down the 500-year-old tree, "to protect our employees and guests as well as the wider general public".
An Enfield Council planning document from March 2024 stated that the pedunculate oak was a "fine specimen" with high ecological and landscape value and had a life expectancy of at least 50 years.
But council leader Ergin Erbil said a more recent inspection found the tree could have lived for several more centuries.
He said: "Our experts surveyed this tree in December and they said it's healthy... so I completely oppose the argument from the leaseholder that this posed a health and safety risk."
Describing the felling of the tree as an "outrage", Mr Erbil added that M&B "did not consult us as the landowner, and they should have". The oak, which was cut down on 3 April, was located on the edge of council-owned Whitewebbs Park and overlooked a Toby Carvery.
Enfield Council said on Tuesday it had reported the felling as a case of criminal damage to the Met Police, which is understood to have closed its inquiry, deeming it a civil matter.

@eatdrinkmb

Illustration for upcoming 'Lake District Map'

Hand-drawn in brush pen with digital colour.  © Peter Gander

(230316) 'Margate Harbour Arm'

 Watercolour on 300gsm grain fin paper. 150mm x 105mm

© Peter Gander

Highway(s England) Robbery

 

Highways England, (HE) responsible for Kent’s Dart Charge, use infamous Marston Holdings to recover fines for them. Marston Holdings have been accused of heavy-handed tactics to recoup fines they adopt from HE then charge over the odds to recoup these fines using dubious methods. The artist/author can vouch for this...

Marston Holdings accused of heavy-handed tactics in recovering Highways England fines

 

#SouthernWater provide shit service in Kent

 

Corona virus Anagaram #IsolatedCreated

Droit House & Turner Contemporary, Margate

The Turner Contemporary, Margate  © Peter Gander

Watercolour original on 300gsm ‘Grain Fin’ paper.

Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight map update

This year’s Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight map  © Peter Gander

Once again that time of the year comes around when I hopefully add (or sadly delete) breweries taking part in creating a special ‘Green Hop beer’ for the first hop harvest in The Garden of England. #KentGreenHop

‘Herne Bay skaters’

‘Herne Bay skaters’ mixed media  © Peter Gander

New breweries sign up for The Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight 2018

The Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight map 2018  © Peter Gander

This week I have been updating the annual Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight map with a few new breweries taking it up this year, such as Northdown Brewery, Margate; No Frills Jim brewery, Dartford, Iron Pier Brewery Gravesend and Stag Brewery, Woodchurch. Plus Dartford have their own KGHB festival this year too. #KGHBFortnight 
#Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight #RealAle #CraftBeer #Kent #Canterbury@KentGreenHop

Anglesey map

Hand-drawn Anglesey map  © Peter Gander

‘Lapland map’ Christmas card

© Peter Gander/Have a Gander. Watercolour and ink.

detail

detail

‘Running boar’ Painting 170917

I have long wanted to depict a wild boar, as painting or print, as my computer desktop testifies, with a folder entitled ‘boar hogs ref’ that has sat there, bulky with digital visual reference of boars in many forms for a few months now. To be honest, I like the idea of hunting one too. Like game fishing, an honest way of earning your bacon. Boars, unlike many other game quarry however, are fearless. They would square up to you in defiance if they found you threatening them or if you had the cheek to be in their territory and I respect that. Visually, they also look great - the stuff of legend, dark, matted coarse hair, thick with mud and sweat and the male boar sports sharp, intimidating tusks. They are built like a bull, all forebody, full of muscle up front and brave as you can be. I’d like to do a relief print at a later stage, (the boar’s textured pelt is perfect for a grainy print) but for now, with an evening to spare, I thought a quick loose watercolour painting would do the job nicely. (Original for sale: £75.00): petergander@gmail.com (prints may be available at a later date).

Leaving my reference at arm’s length, I like to draw my own version (i.e no tracing photos) using or re-using old paper.

Tracing the old-fashioned and unbeaten way

Tracing down onto Bockingford paper

Starting with a warm yellow fill with my squirrel mop brush 

(it holds bathfuls of liquid)

Yellow complete

Timing is everything in watercolour and a barely-visible sheen awaits before adding a dark body colour

My roof-suspended hairdryer helps drying along in my messy studio

Adding my favourite ‘Payne’s Grey’ leaving the warm yellow to shine through

Achieving that ‘grubby pelt look’, scratching away the paper’s surface to reveal highlights

Here I make a paper aperture (in this case used tracing paper) which keeps the surround clear of spatter...

Flicking paint across the boar in the direction of its movement adds dynamism and a dose of appropriate grubbiness

The final ‘Running boar’ ref:170920: 170mm x 120mm watercolour on 300gsm Bockingford ‘Gran Fin’ paper. • ORIGINAL FOR SALE £75
© Peter Gander

Stamford (Lincs) Map

Hand-drawn map of Stamford, Lincs.  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Hand-lettering, later comped in by computer  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Bath Row detail  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

It wouldn’t be a ‘Gander’ without a fisherman...  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander
 

Traditional Lincolnshire specialities  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Equestrian cartouche with a couple of riders that look suspiciously like my wife and her friend Liz  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

A nod to Monopoly’s icons, Water lane  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Mallard Court detail  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander
 

A woeful melon, perambulating down ‘Melancholy Walk’  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Our Liz, walking down ‘Queen’s Walk’  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Map of Canterbury, Kent

© Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Brewer slaking the thirsts of Canterbury dwellers  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

A medieval picture wouldn’t be complete without a wild hog and cow
© Peter Gander/Have a Gander

I had to get a fish or two in there  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Canterbury’s Coat of Arms  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

A potential husband displays his owl, (as you do), to a Kentish maiden
© Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Beer cart in ‘Beer Cart Lane’ (possibly off to The Foundry Brewpub, perhaps).
© Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Cockerel  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

I do love a corvid. © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Obligatory fish  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Farmhouse  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Maiden  © Peter Gander/Have a Gander

Tannery. When I was a student at Canterbury in the early 80s, you could smell the tannery from afar. It’s now long gone.
© Peter Gander/Have a Gander