Coffee and Tots allow Mums, Dads and young children to meet up socially at the local church. They provide activities for the tots and a chat and meet up for the parents.
The artist, Simon Wellington chose Coffee and Tots as the charity benefitting from the sales of his art. This was chosen after raising £750 for the local Scout and Guides Movement.
Simon Wellington said: “All the sales of cards, prints and books are done on trust. The latest picture is of The Jurassic Bites Cafe across from the phone box in Seaton Hole. It was painted as a thank you to Lee and Julie who help to collect the honesty payments at the cafe.”
The Gallery was set up by Simon with help from Seaton Town Council to sell stock of works he had in storage after a lifetime of exhibiting and selling art in galleries around the South of England.
Mr Wellington added: “There was no way of being around all the time to make sales from the box, so it was decided to trial honesty payments either to Simon’s post box next to the phone box, or to the cafe, or after the goods are taken away and paid online.
“It worked! A thousand pounds over the course of a year have been donated to the two charities. There is a comments book in the box and it seems that a very large percentage of sales are to foreign tourists walking the Jurassic Path, which runs past the box and Simon’s house.”
The paintings are mainly landscapes around the South West of England and are being bought to take back to USA, Germany, France, Holland etc. as souvenirs of their visit. Just recently the landscapes of Glastonbury and its Tor have been very popular.
Simon added: “Liz asked me what he wanted the £250 to be spent on for the tots. Simon’s first employment was as a full time professional footballer and played part time during his teaching, signwriting, then art career.
“As a keen sportsman across many sports, he suggested that the money be used to buy basic sports equipment which would help the tots develop hand-eye coordination and athleticism at a very basic level.
The next charity chosen, is again, a small local charity as Simon feels that the money is best spent.
