Hand-drawn Whitstable icons print

Whitstable icons print  © Peter Gander

For lovers of ‘The Bubble’, a reminder on the wall of why they keep going back to this lovely north Kent seaside town. Famous for its oysters and Oyster Festival, the Hammer House of Horrors actor Peter Cushing and the brass diving helmet (it was invented here). Whether a beer at ‘The Neppy’ is you bag or a plate of fish and chips on the beach is more your style, there’s sure to be a personal favourite on here. Printed on archival-quality A3 (297mm wide x 420mm high) paper with great lightfastness. Buy one on Folksy Original was painted with brush and black Indian ink, plus marker pens.

Sketch for ‘Whitstable smack’ linocut

Sketch, ‘Whitstable smack’ © Peter Gander

For my end-of-the-month show, a preliminary sketch for ‘Whitstable smack’, which will be a linoprint using a composite of images of all things Whitstable. A smack is the distinctive sail boat shown in the centre, these were used for bringing in the oysters. Also featured are the Crab & Winkle, (after Britain’s first passenger railway from Canterbury to Whitstable); a wind farm turbine; the Fish Market standing figure, as per my previous linocut); a Maunsell Fort (ditto); The Street (sea shingle walk, ditto), Oysters, seagulls, fishing huts, an anchor and a rope border. This sort of composition is inspired and influenced by the wonderful woodcuts of British artists Geoffrey Wales (who actually lived in nearby Margate), Eric Ravilious and the linocuts of Edward Bawden.

‘Whitstable is my oyster’ (landscape) greetings card

Whitstable is my oyster (landscape) © Peter Gander

This time painted only in blue Quink Indian Ink, the lettering was hand-drawn with a bamboo dip pen for a greetings card for my upcoming end of May show.

‘Whitstable is my oyster’ (portrait) greetings card

Whitstable is my oyster (portrait) © Peter Gander

My spin on ‘The world’s your oyster’, as Whitstable is also known as ‘Oystertown’ and also ‘The Pearl of Kent’ as the town grew on its Whitstable Native Oyster industry and still does a decent trade. This small painting will appear as a greetings card at my upcoming show. Painted cloisonné style, (with a thick black outline) and Winsor & Newton watercolour on The Langton 300gsm rough paper.