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"Herne Bay Hockey Club's Men's 2's had just won another game and I thought this had given my partner, Stuart Hume, a rush of blood to the head when he said 'Why don't you you do a giant painting on the old Hockey Pitch?' A mad idea. Or was it? 

The old AstroTurf at Beacon Road has long been condemned. With a good layer of moss, weeds around the edges, it is used by some as a place for their dogs to relieve themselves.

I looked across this 5000 square metre sea of green and started to imagine a seascape. A giant wave, with white horses breaking out, beneath which sea-horses bobbed along; a carousel on the beach. Why did horses keep recurring?

By coincidence I had just been stone carving discarded pieces of Canterbury Cathedral and something resembling a horse was beginning to emerge. I had just finished a 'Mr Brexit' and 'Transgender Pirate' but I wasn't expecting the four horses of the apocalypse to pop into my head - my carving only had two horses and one of those has since been lopped off. But why did I keep finding horses?

Most people know that the symbol of Kent is The White Horse Rampant, but who knew that the earliest horse in the world, that all other horses are evolved from, once lived in Herne Bay? I'm not a horsey mad person, nor am I particularly into palaeontology but when I discovered that the 54 million year old fossil of Hyracotherium, that pre-dates any other was found on Studd Hill, Herne Bay, I thought it was pretty amazing. 
Local Fossil News Story

The Herne Bay Hockey and Tennis Club site in Beacon Road will no doubt, at some point, be redeveloped. Until then it is the perfect canvas and once in a life time opportunity to create the biggest painting in the UK and celebrate The Dawn Horse.
I took my crazy idea to Beach Creative, a community centred arts organisation, gallery and studio space in Herne Bay. They were generous enough to take me seriously and the ball started rolling. There is no two ways about it the process of applying for Lottery Funding is painful. With the help of funding mentors, who were working with Beach Creative, I was encouraged to focus on Herne Bay's need and emphasise more negative points. I found myself quoting Morrissey's 'Everyday Feels Like Sunday' with the lyrics "It was a Seaside Town They Forgot to Close Down" which could have been said about most seaside towns around the UK in the 80's. The Smiths video was actually shot across the water in Southend on Sea.

I had my tongue somewhat in my cheek whilst writing but, as most of the Lottery assessors are under 25, live in Newcastle, or other parts of County Durham, they have possibly never even heard of Herne Bay but with the 80's being regurgitated I knew they would have heard of Morrissey. I also made use of www.ilivehere.com/hernebay which gives an outdated view, in my opinion, but helped get funding.

 

Anyway after a May Bank holiday weekend spent locked in the attic, on the computer for 16 hours each day, I finally pinged off funding applications (but not before I had lost the whole lot and had to rewrite it because I am Technologically challenged..."