I’m drawing at home with a little group called band of sketchers on Facebook. It’s an offshoot of urban sketchers and it means that I draw at home every couple of days. I avoid going out much these days as I want to avoid coming into contact with people. One day I will feel better, but for now I’m hiding in my little shell and avoiding coughs and sneezes.
I have enjoyed keeping my drawing skills up. A lot of the sketches are done really fast, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Our small group are challenging each other to learn new techniques and improving our observation skills.
Let’s say you woke up with a terrible cough, a fever, and severe body aches. Immediately, you rush to the testing station and unfortunately, you’re told you are positive for COVID-19. For the last two weeks, you’ve been unaware that you were infected and you’ve ignored “the rules.” You’ve gotten together with some close friends for pizza, had a few people over, even visited a park and a beach. You figured, “I don’t feel sick. I have the right to keep living my normal life. No one can tell me what to do.” With your diagnosis, you spend the next few days at home on the couch, feeling pretty crappy; but then you’re well again because you’re young, healthy and strong. Lucky you. But your best friend caught it from you during a visit to your house, and because she didn’t know she was contagious, she visited her 82-year-old grandfather, who uses oxygen tanks daily to help him breathe because he has COPD and heart failure. Now, he’s dead. Your co-worker, who has asthma, caught it too, during your little pizza get-together. Now, he’s in the ICU, and he’s spread it to a few others in his family, too–but they won’t know that for another couple of weeks yet. The cashier at the restaurant where you picked up the pizza carried the infection home to his wife, who has MS, which makes her immunosuppressed. She’s not as lucky as you, so she’s admitted to the hospital because she’s having trouble breathing. She may need to be placed in a medically-induced coma and intubated; she may not get to say goodbye to her loved ones. She may die surrounded by machines, with no family at her bedside. All because you couldn’t stand the inconvenience of a mask; of staying home; of changing your familiar routines for just a little while. Because you have the right, above all others rights, to continue living your normal life and no one, I mean no one, has the right to tell you what to do.
SocialDistancing = It’s not about YOU!
WearAMask = It’s not about YOU!
StayHome = It’s not about YOU!
GetTested = It’s not about YOU!
Written by Anonymous. Copied from a friend and shared. Please do the same.
I don’t know what species it is, I can’t get very good closeups with my phone but I think it’s a Bee, however it could be a hover fly? The back end of it doesn’t look fuzzy enough. But it has yellow and black bands on it. So does anyone know?
Whether bee or fly, at least its something that pollinates plants, and that’s what we need to protect in the world. Imagine a world without pollinating insects? There would be a lot less fruit and vegetables unless we were to hand pollinate or create machines that could do it. But we don’t need that. We need to protect what we already have! Banning pesticides that kill bees, like nicotioides. Farming responsibly and safely. Its a difficult balance. But we must make it happen.
I must stop staying up and watching TV late at night. I’ve got into the habit of watching a TV series that is streamed every night. I used to watch it a few years ago and when it came back on I started watching. Virtually every night.
Why? Comfort. I can relax when I watch it. I get taken back in time, I like it. But it’s late at night, sometimes later than others, that has consequences, it means I get up late. I know I don’t go to work anymore, but half the day has gone.
Luckily the series ends soon. And this is the last series. Only another three weeks and I won’t be watching it anymore. But I am glued to the screen at the moment. What will I do without my little addiction. What else will tickle my fancy? I’m just glad I don’t have a subscription to a video streaming platform, or I will be lost.
When you live with someone with bad hearing loss, be prepared to repeat yourself. Sometimes endlessly.
He has hearing aids, but he doesn’t always remember to put them in, and even when he does he can’t always hear me. I repeat things, but because he has lost the higher frequency sounds my voice can be too high to hear. We end up in a guessing game. I say a word say ‘splurge’ for instance, and he will say ‘Forge, force?’ I repeat, then ‘sort? Sports?’ repeat again, trying to pitch my voice lower…. ‘splits?’ finally he gets it. The energy it takes to communicate is hard work. Tiring. Irritating. But ultimately we communicate.
Quick sketch, layers for #bandofsketchers. Just a pile of washing on the settee with the cat in attendance. Not very exciting I’m afraid. I woukd have liked to have drawn the layers of a cake, or layers of rock in a cliff, or even layers of clothes that someone is wearing, or layers of cloud, but I didn’t have much choice as I haven’t been out today. It’s a bit garish, but I love pattern and colour, so it will do.
Tea, (early evening meal). Cornish pasty. Mixed salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, sliced mushroom, baby bell peppers and a bit of dijon mustard and light mayonnaise. On a Portmeirion dinner plate. I think it was a good balance of food groups. Trying to cut down on carbohydrates and fats a bit. Colour on a plate.
Finding things that I haven’t seen for years. There is a set of old slides that I might try and get turned into photos. I’ve also seen an app where you can convert negatives to photos on your phone, which is great, but I already have them in albums and do I need more on my devices? I wish I still had the painting but it was sold to the local MP at the time. I think it ended up at the house of commons!
This was a friend years ago. I painted it with the idea that the perspective of the window gave it an interesting effect. The figure looks large in comparison to the shelves across the window. I also liked the slightly twisted pose. It’s an oil on canvas.
Triple portrait. I painted this more than twenty years ago. It was from a photo and the workwas a commission. Unfortunately I only have this blurry photo. I think I have a better one somewhere. The painting was called breakfast. Acrylic on canvas.
