Vintage Fair at St Michael's Trading Estate this Sunday

It's all happening at Bridport's 'Art & Vintage Quarter' on the St Michael's Trading Estate.

Last night I went down to the weekly Friday night 'Pizza by the River', just down the lane from my studio. Pizza's are delicious freshly baked in the Jalopy Pizza Van, and served on wooden plates. It's becoming quite a bustling event now, and last night was the busiest I've seen it yet, with dozens of people chatting and kids playing.

Tomorrow it's the monthly Vintage Market (Sun 25th July) down there, and this has also been rapidly growing in popularity. There's a great sense of community at the market, and I imagine it must feel like it did 50 years ago, across the UK, before the awful re-development of towns started, as clueless town planners and short-sighted developers began to rip out the older quarters of our towns, driving out all these amazing grass-roots communities.

But not in Bridport! No! It's great to think that this time last year we were fighting to save the trading estate from becoming a massive housing estate, and now this entire Vintage Quarter has sprung up here. It just goes to prove what we were saying all along, that the old rope-making district of Bridport is a huge asset to the town and should be protected and appreciated as a brilliant venue for small businesses and the creative industries.

Last weekend I went to the opening of "Voyages" at Sladers Yard Gallery in West Bay. There's some great art on show, and I particularly enjoyed the highly polished sculptures by David Worthington (one of the artists in my book "Portrait of the Artist". David was actually an assistant to Anish Kapoor in the 90's, and there's definitely a 'spiritual' similarity in the work.

I met Sladers artist Alex Lowery, who's paintings brilliantly capture the bleakness of West Bay. He also shows at Art First, in Cork Street, London.

I also talked with artist Amanda Wallwork, Director at Sherborne House, and Lindsay Brookes, who has resigned from being Director of Bridport Arts Centre after three years. She's going to become a consultant instead, so I hope we get someone equally accomplished and enthusiastic to replace her.

Meanwhile I've been busy getting on with my own work, a number of landscapes including a 4-foot high commission on another view from Lewesdon Hill. It's still early days on this new body of work, as I start mapping out the foundations of the paintings, which will soon disappear under dozens of glazes of oil paint.

I'm also thinking of making a larger version of "Dorset Clouds", one of my favorite and most popular paintings showing the view from the top of Allington Hill, looking west across the Marshwood Vale towards the row of hills - Lamberts Castle, Pilsden Pen and Lewesdon Hill. It's really the skies that excite me in this project, and I want to further develop the drama from the first painting, with the sun breaking out from the thunderous clouds and rain falling in the distance, with shadows from the clouds drifting across the valley. I grew up in Dorset, so I have strong memories of how the weather influenced the light and colour and atmosphere throughout the day. The original is 4ft wide, and I'm thinking of doing one 6-8ft wide, maybe with a bigger sky...


To see more of my works visit www.kitglaisyer.com