Coastal Currents

It's been a bit of an eventful month here are the Pilcher's. We got called over to the States where Linda's mum has been very ill. It's been a bit grim, but I won't concern you with the details - I'll just say that we wish Fumiko Robertson a quick and speedy recovery, and that we love her.

We're back now, and I'm a bit behind with my drawing, but I'm hoping I won't end up posting any strips late this month. I have three weeks in hand, so I'll be drawing like a madman this month to bring myself back to my usual month's worth ahead by the end of September.

We've got an new gallery in Hastings, The Jerwood Gallery, known to everyone in town as The Jedward. It opened this spring in a prominent position on the fishing beach, next to the net shops. It's an unpreposessing building, looking like a black-tiled public toilet from the outside, so low key that you almost feel it's apologising for being there. In fact there is a black tiled public toilet next door to it. If you get confused - the way to tell them apart is that the Jedward is the one with the windows.

Once you're inside though everything changes. It's bright and airy and the windows give you some beautifully framed views of the Old Town. The art inside the gallery is, to be frank, a bit of a mixed bunch. It's all modern and contemporary art, mainly 20th and 21st Century stuff. It all depends on what your tastes are I suppose - abstract expressionism doesn't impress me in the least, and canvases made up of formless splodges of paint are what take up most of the walls on the lower floor. Go upstairs and things improve immeasurably - this is where the Lowrys, the Stephen Spenders, the Walter Sickerts and the Augustus Johns are. Call me a Stuckist if you like, but I like my art to look like stuff.

This month is also when the Coastal Currents festival takes place in 1066 Country. It's essentially a three week period in which the local art community tries to outpseud one another. This year, amongst other artworks, we shall have a recreation of the US/Mexico border in a church hall, the end of the world in a town centre basement, an assemblage of model cars, a forest of bamboo and silk in a park by the seafront, and lots and lots of utterly pointless video masquerading as art. It's never less than interesting, and I wouldn't mind betting a lot of the least promising and most pretentious sounding art will actually turn out to be really worthwhile. Apart from the video art of course - by definition that's beneath contempt.

So this month you'll see the strip has a bit of an artistic bent, and will even include a visit to the gallery.

Jones' studio will not be part of the Coastal Currents Open Studio programme.