diversifying the portfolio

Sons, oh Sons. I have been a thinking' of late and have thunk great thoughts. Or at least thats how it seems to me. A new business venture beckons. Another string to my bow. Another thing for me to do that might not make me any money. But its something I want to try.

What? I hear you cry.

What?

This.

I am going to have those lovely sketchbooks that I use made with my company name embossed on the back, and start selling them all over these here United States. I believe in them, I've used them almost exclusively for 20 years and I've never found anything better.....and you can't get them in the States. I've been talking to the UK suppliers and they are going to produce the books with my name on....which they also do for the Tate Gallery in London.

Kings of London.

Thats my company name. Sounds Royal. Sounds Old. Sounds expensive.

So here's what I am asking of you guys. I want to put together a website for Kings of London to showcase the books. On the webpage I want to feature testimonials and images of work done in the books.

You'll click on the testimonials tab and up will come all these gorgeous thumbnails of watercolours and collages and writing and pen and ink drawings and pencil work, each with a short one or two sentence testimonial saying how great the paper is or how nicely made they are, that there is nothing else as good on the market in the usa etc etc. Don't mention Seawhite of Brighton (the manufacturer, and you don't even need to mention Kings of London. Just "this sketchbook" or "these sketchbooks" or whatever. Doesn't need to be an essay. Just a sentence or two that I can quote. And a 72dpi image that I can post, something that you love that you did in a sketchbook that you got from me.

Then, when its all set up and running.....I'm going to ask you to tell everyone you know to use Kings of London sketchbooks. They will only be available from me, not in stores so I'll need to advertise and rely on word of mouth recommendations.

OR.....if you think I'm headed down a blind alley with this or you think the sketchbooks aren't as good as I think they are, I would value your opinion. 

Boldly going where no man has gone before, MBK

The Sons of Turtle

Greetings from Saugatuk!

summary thoughts, after the Maine trip

The website is coming offline in a few days due to Apple restructuring (canceling) some of its programs, so I wanted to pull this off the SOT website and save it to our blog. Note that science writing this I now HAVE an iPad, courtesy of the Sons of Turner. Looking forward to Saugatuck. MBK

No one died except:A lot of lobstersand Petey the Oven bird

2 Cups broken

There was banditry on the second trip. The Moustache brothers struck hard and struck often

Gabs painted more than any human has ever painted before

None of us was any good at the standup bass

8 is the perfect number for a trip like this

Its not necessarily WHAT you paint but THAT you do work and move forwards. I painted seascapes and guns but I feel that I have moved forwards as an artist

I want an iPad

Tattoos were had.

Sherry likes the idea of developing an icon for each trip.

Maine would be a moustacheSavannah would be Jessie’s crabSanta fe maybe the little turtle that we made sculptures with at the kitchen table?

Rum seems to be the beverage of the sons of Turner and of pirates

Being on a boat

Talking in a foppish southern accent

Johnny depp, giant squid etc

On the plane on the way home I was able to reflect on the week and the three years and I have to say, I believe there’s some momentum now. We are truly becoming something more than just people who go on a trip together.