New paintings and regular art updates.
So tired,
A day full of painting ad singing, I was helping with the Molly Leigh project at BArts. I offered to paint a picture for a wall in the witches cottage, I ended up painting a fireplace too. I only did the morning as I wanted to join the choir and to be honest I was so stiff and tired after I’d been painting I almost fell asleep in my chair!
With my sister. We went outside looking for auroras. A lot of people living nearby had taken photos and posted them on Facebook. The sky just looked a bit cloudy to me, but a friend said she thought the sky just looked a bit odd until she took a long exposure. So I set my camera on night with a wide apature and it stacked pictures for 60 seconds. I shake too much so had to try and find a position to hold the camera still, hence the blurry shots. I ended up shoving my right hand against the door jamb and just pushing the button with my left, shaky hand. On the last one I caught greenish streaks. My sister took a couple of these. No real structure but proof you can see aurora even in the city with a long enough exposure! One off the bucket list!
What a treat! Starter with wasabi mayonnaise at Miso Japanese restaurant in Stoke, Stoke on Trent.
Then I had a bento box, your choice of main dish plus vegetable goyoza, sticky rice with sesame seeds, salad, cucumber sushi rolls and thinly sliced pickled ginger. There are vegan, vegetarian and meat or fish options.
Then we had sake and also plum wine. I’m not used to drinking much anymore but a relative was over visiting me so we decided to go mad.
I don’t go out very often anymore, but I remember years ago we used to visit the restaurant regularly. I’m glad I went, it’s really friendly and the food is always good.
Calling this finished, I could keep fighting her but I’m struggling. The face is loosley based on a portrait of a French peasant woman by Theodore Gericault. Now I can have a rest, that was hard work.
I might do some more to this tomorrow but a full day on it has knackered me. The sky is a bit wrong and I could darken some of it to add shadows. I think the roof is too light too so I might add blues and browns.
It’s for a project about Molly Leigh but I might also try and enter it for an exhibition. I want to make it the best possible representation.
This is hard work, I don’t shake as much when I’m concentrating but the tremors of Parkinsons make small details difficult. I try and hold my breath and clamp my arm against my body. In fact I’m having to redo sections because I’m not happy with the results, but I will persevere, memory of Molly, work in progress. Acrylic on canvas. Copy of a mural I did at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Difficult to reproduce the same feeling.
What was the last live performance you saw?
Penkhull Ukelele Band tonight! Music like the Sloop John B, a couple of Beatles songs, other songs from the 1960s. Some fantastic Ukelele playing, singing, and fiddle playing.
I’m afraid I have a blind spot when it comes to music, I can sing a song with a choir or on my own, but I can’t recall the words until I actually start singing. It’s the same with song titles, I can sing them, but ask me the title five minutes later? I’ve forgotten it! I can answer most quiz questions but the group and the title? No chance! I’m better at classical music, but I can’t recognise a symphony or a stanza. It’s very strange.
Not a good photo as I was shaking too much, but I really enjoyed the music of Penkhull Ukelele Band that was on at the Beehive in Honeywall, Stoke-on-Trent tonight. My friend gave me a lift there and I met some lovely people. I was trying hard to think of things to talk about, and in the end I hardly stopped chatting. It’s been a long time since I’ve met new people and I kept trying to persuade them to join local choirs!
Loneliness is a strange thing, you can try hard to communicate with people, but sometimes it and anxiety make you hang back. If I’d been asked to go on my own I know I would not have gone out the house because I would have worried about how I looked, or what I would say. As it was having a friend for support gave me the confidence to try something new. I’m glad I went.
Trying to recreate my Molly Leigh mural as a painting. Work in progress. Acrylic on canvas. It’s a lot smaller, about 12 by 18 inches? There’s a lot of detail to try and get and I’m adding a painting of a Jay. The bird was apparently the pet (or familiar) of Molly who is called the Burslem witch.
I saw a prompt on Esther Chilton’s page “dreams” and decided to write a poem about loss to respond to it. Here it is.
In my dreams you are still here
I grasp your hand to pull you near
To say “goodnight” to you my sweet,
As my heart trips and skips a beat,
To have you here, to hear you speak,
That is the dream I really seek.
I know that you have gone away,
Will never see another day.
I’m in a dream now, holding on
To memories of you though you’ve gone.
Mallaband-Brown