Pictures of Inside The Turner Contemporary a Margate Ramble

I went to Margate this morning, to see both the new Turner Contemporary Art Gallery and to look at the first art exhibition there.

I arrived before the gallery opened and wandered around a bit first, a few parts of the landscaping outside of the gallery are obviously not finished yet, including what appears to be the largest concrete flowerpot I have ever noticed.

Most of what is there inside and outside the gallery should be pretty obvious from the pictures, however one thing you can't explain is the smoothness of the concrete surfaces that  feel like polished stone.

I walked around the gallery and the town a bit, trying to find a notepad and a pen and have to thank the lady in Remembrance Angel who gave me both.

There was a very loud alarm going off on an empty building opposite the gallery, fortunately this stopped after a while.

Eventually I came at the gallery from what must have been the tradesman’s entrance or something so I arrived before it opened, on the inside of the barriers that were there to control any crowds, that could have turned up.

This takes you to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id11.htm

Eventually I gravitated to the kitchen, in order to check that what was going on there would be ok when the gallery opened, fortunately people are usually kind to me in kitchens.

I have sampled the wares there and you can be assured that it is a good place to eat.

The staff are charming too as you can see from the pictures. I then went into the gift and bookshop, the gallery opened about this time.

I think this should take you up to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id2.htm

Next I had an inconvenient moment probably due to the way I gravitate towards kitchens, and obviously a chat with the chap cleaning the loo, he says that it is hard work to keep clean, but he thinks that it’s a fantastic building.

Then to James Webb’s marvellous picture of Margate, and on to some good and bad stairs, to view Etagram, this was the only work in this room, either intentionally or they intend to hang some more pictures, not sure really.

On to the Russell Crotty exhibits, I contemplated being employed to turn the pages of the very large books and wondered what happened to the gallery attendant who tore a page.

And then to the shed within the shed, Arcadia, this contains Ellen Harvey’s illuminated Plexiglas etchings of Margate, my favourite part of the exhibition and by far the most difficult to photograph, sorry about the results.

That takes you to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/index.htm

I wasn’t that keen on the Turner, this isn’t one of my favourite pictures of his, I played about with the camera at this point tying to get Turner like effects, this sort of affected behaviour is I know rather embarrassing, so please accept my apologies. Especially to Conrad Shawcross whose exhibits I used as a background for this tomfoolery in the next gallery.

You may also note that the Turner gallery has a very big lift, most galleries do, but not always available for the public to use, it had the inevitable attendant as I expect it was expensive.

At this point I did what most Englishmen do when confronted potentially embarrassing situations and went in search of a pot of tea, served in a civilised fashion.

This takes you up to the end of this page of pictures.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id4.htm

Next tea in Puffins Café, very civilised, pot of the with proper china for £1.20, something I considered to be excellent value.

Then into Artists Open Studios on the harbour arm, some good quality work here as you can see from the pictures of the pictures, I hope.

That should take you to the end of this page.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id5.htm

Past the shell ladies and on to the Imperial Art Gallery and a few pictures of the people on the beach and into the old town. I was surprised to find the Community pharmacy Gallery closed. Punch and Judy were amusing the children, well I suppose you can see from the pictures. Into Outside the Square Gallery where they told me that I couldn’t take any pictures, this threw me a bit,

That takes you to the end of this page http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id6.htm

I took a few more pictures but was flagging a bit by then see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id7.htm so I went back to Ramsgate. 

 I will ramble on and add more pictures as the mood takes me.