THE Tendring Talk team are no art experts.

We can see the skill in those who can recreate a scene, or give life through ink or scuplture to an image from the mind.

However, we remain a little suspicious over many aspects of the art scene. We simply don’t understand it.

Modern art is bad enough but now we have “conceptual” art – pouring a tin of tomato soup over an old training shoe and calling it ‘Inner City Reflections.’ As an indication of how little we know, we think Van Gogh is a little overrated.

His work is OK but we suspect if he had not cut his ear off there would not be quite so much fuss.

We suspect we are simply too thick to be able to appreciate art’s extremes – we lack the intellect, and the goatee beard.

For example, we think chopping a sheep in half and floating it in a tank is a waste of a few good chops.

Therefore, we readily acknowledge we are not best placed to comment on artist Claire Iles’s project.

She is spending a week sleeping under the stars in Jaywick on different vacant plots of land as part of an art project, and building her own mobile structure from recycled wood.

Apparently, the inspiration for the project comes from the Rabari tribe in India, which is constantly on the move.

We had a similar word for this when we were little – camping out.

We would build little houses from bits of wood in the garden and sleep in them overnight – or at least until it got cold or started raining.

It also strikes us when people from the English moving ‘tribe’ (commonly known as travellers) move on to plots of land in mobile structures Tendring Council soon turns up with an eviction order.

We trust Ms Iles will receive a slightly warmer welcome.

If the weather gets too bad, she could always sleep in Jaywick’s Martello Tower, which is another artistic project that leaves many residents shaking their heads.

We would also advise Ms Iles not to leave her temporary structure alone too long, as vacant properties in the resort, sadly, do have a tendency to get broken into and then set alight. However, we are sure the residents of Jaywick will give her a great welcome.

We are sure this is a valuable project that will bring real benefits.

But we are similarly sure there will be many people who will look on in bemusement, and wonder how such a project is helping people in their fight out of poverty, poor living standards etc.

We suspect, for many residents, the most help they would like from the art world is giving some of the area’s run-down properties a lick of paint.