When Merzi de Bris saw the seagulls devouring the contents of an abandoned polystyrene shish kebab box on Margate’s main beach, she felt compelled to record the raw energy of the scene. Out of her rapid plein air sketches came a charming monoprint study (above) of a young seagull depositing faecal matter on the resort’s golden sands.

“I was particularly taken by the seagull’s provocative ‘rude boy’ attitude in his nonchalant dropping of a figurative two fingers,” said de Bris.

The print was executed by the subtractive method, as are all of de Bris’s many thousands of monoprints.  Here she has peeled off the image on to a brown kraft paper bag of 60 gsm that she sourced from her local greengrocer. Colouration has been provided by the use of typewriter correction fluid and a fluorescent chisel-pointed high-lighter taken directly from the artist’s desk.

Poet composes himself after thoughts

stimulate his emotions

As his contribution to their continuous collaboration, the Margate-based writer Knut Sackvoll drew on his direct experience of keeping wind (and rain) at bay while contemplating the existential reality of life under a Turner sky.

He did this by sitting in Margate’s literary landmark, the seafront shelter patronised by T.S.Eliot and conveniently situated adjacent to the public lavatories. 

Sackvoll had long-marvelled at the thought that when he sat in this refuge overlooking Margate Sands his buttocks were being touched by the same wood that had supported Eliot’s. It was a strange conduit for a surge of creativity but nevertheless the energy contained in this thought stimulated Sackvoll to re-work the great poet’s words into a three-line 5-7-5 syllable Japanese-style composition (below) to enhance de Bris’s visual acuity.

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Buy ‘The Rude Boy’ seagull print

The celebrated Margate artist Merzi de Bris has reproduced one of her best-known monoprints as a high quality giclée art print. The print (203mm x 203mm), known as “The Rude Boy”, comes ready for framing and is available from Studio Kwerky, the online art gallery shop, at £8.50 plus p&p.

Meet ‘The Rude Boy’ artist

THE TRUTH BEHIND ELIOT’S NAME

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