With poor brushes you can still paint. This is about A4 size. The trouble was when I painted this, I couldn’t get a point on the brushes they provided. That made it hard to get detail on the faces and hands. It ended up looking very sketchy but I did my best. This took about 2 hours to knit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Hogarth would be spinning or laughing in his grave! Acrylic on board.
By the time I finished I had to be helped up off my chair. My left hand has been cramping up ever since and my left leg is in spasm. I’m hunched over after leaning in to add details. It’s been a hard, hot day and my Parkinsons is making me shake like a jelly!
My painting “still me” is finally finished. It’s a self portrait about the fact I have continued to create despite my health issues. My hands still shake but I concentrate and it’s not too bad. I don’t know what I will do if my Parkinsons gets worse. I don’t know how I will cope. But I will try to fight it and remain “still me”. I’ve just entered it to a local art exhibition.
A few weeks ago. I usually sing alto at choir practice but recently I’ve been trying to explore my voice. It’s helping to keep me going dispite the Parkinsons disease and shortness of breath. Sometimes I sing up higher, as a slightly squeeky soprano, and also as in this photo as a bass if they are short of singers. Here me and the only bass singer that night were trying not to be distracted by the altos tune which was very similar. My friend was laughing at us and took this photo of us trying to avoid hearing the other tune.
Quick portrait I did today at a craft group I go to. I took my sketchbook because I just wanted to practice drawing. I find I get a lot of tension in my arms when I try and draw or paint theses days. It’s because I shake so much with the Parkinsons disease but something takes over when I’m being artistic. But if I hold a sheet of music when I sing I can’t stop shaking. Weird.
I had a shower, struggled as usual to get ready to go out. Honestly five minutes to put my shoes on. Then I decided to drive to choir practice because I can’t walk fast enough. But got stuck in a line of traffic. It’s only a few hundred yards but I couldn’t get round the corner, then had to park a distance away from our meeting room.
I enjoyed the singing and didn’t trip up over my handbag despite getting my foot trapped in its strap. Then lunch with some friends in the restaurant there.
I’d taken the car so I could also go shopping. I can’t carry much and I needed to resupply as I was almost out of groceries. I managed to park badly in the disabled bay, half over the line. I apologise to anyone I obstructed but my arms don’t seem to pull well on the steering wheel. I chatted with someone sitting outside who was obviously in need of help. I could only offer to get him a sandwich, but that was better than nothing.
Home and I had to clean and dry the fridge which had a pool of cold water in its base? I think I’d moved the thermostat dial by accident and it’s not been cold enough. Then I hauled the food into the fridge slowly. I had several bags so I didn’t need to carry much at a time.
By then I was shattered and fell asleep in front of “escape to the country”, escaping my own time line and waking up just in time for an episode of “star trek voyager” where time paradoxes abounded.
But, half way through I remembered choir practice tonight, so had to go out again. I’m tired now because we have to stand up to sing if we can and I use that as an exercise class, I’m not mobile enough and I need to make an effort.
Now I want to go to sleep but need tea. I was going to try and make scrambled eggs on toast. But porridge seems as appealing and easily done in the microwave.
That was a full on day. I’m shattered. But I need to socialise with people. Most of the week I just sit and watch TV. I’m thankful when I can fight anxiety and escape for a while. Singing helps sanity!
I took this photo after playing table tennis today. I’d popped this ping pong ball into my pocket and took it home by mistake. I haven’t been to the group for a few months after I was ill. I’m not sure if I’m fully recovered but decided to give it a go. I managed to play a bit but had to take breaks. Since I got home I’ve been really tired and I think I’m coming down with something. Ugh.
This morning the neighbour was hammering again but I ignored him, I had an appointment with the optician. I decided to walk the few hundred yards as want to try and get a bit fitter. As it was it took me about 25 minutes to walk 800 yards…. I’m just getting more unsteady and it’s a vicious circle of pain and shaking with the Parkinsons.
To the opticians, as I thought my cataracts are getting worse, he agreed, but that at least means I might be able to get one eye operated on.
I picked up a few groceries on the way home, enough for one bag. I needed some vegetables and porridge. Then home slowly in the sunshine.
When I got in I decided to pay for my garden waste collection. I tried ringing the council but got automatic voice messages explaining that I would have to pay online and no one would personally take my call. After feeling frustrated I decided to text my local councillor. That’s hit and miss as I have to spell check everything because I don’t always hit the right keys. This was asking if I could ring another number and get a real person!
Finally I tried the council number again. I chose a different option and a man answered. He put me through to the waste department and I got a real person, a woman to speak to. She asked if I could get a relative to pay, but one is dead, another lives 80 or 90 miles away and the other one is abroad. I could go down to the library she said. I explained I had already been to town and was tired out (my car was blocked in or perhaps I could have driven). Eventually it got through to her that I wasn’t going to be able to do it so after speaking to a manager she took the payment over the phone. Looking back I could have been nicer but I was tired and flustered. I she told me to use my key pad on my phone to type in some numbers and I didn’t realise she meant the phone keypad, I was looking for a qwerty keyboard! I did apologise for taking up her time.
So then I fell asleep and dozed for a while. It’s taken me a while to get this down on my phone keypad. I don’t normally have the energy to do so much in one day, my feet and ankles ache and I’m feeling a bit grumpy!
I need to draw again, but with my Parkinsons it’s so hit and miss. I need to be still enough to stop the tremors transfering onto the pages. Either my drawing hand shakes or the hand holding the Sketchbook shakes, it’s like being a human seismograph! If I had the gumption I would use it to my artistic advantage. I’ve never wanted so much to colour outside the lines but in a coherent, not random way. My life needs to settle down so my mind can too.
Bright auroras all over the UK. But they happened earlier and I seem to have missed them. When I did go out round the back of the house the sky looked normal. So I looked north at the front of my house. But I could only see a green glow through the factory lights. My Parkinsons camera shake was as bad as ever and I was shivering. So I totally apologise for this awful picture!
Auroras again. Last night at 2am. Looking West. This is a 60 second exposure taken on my phone camera which stacks images when my phone is set on night exposure. Midlands in England. How can I be so lucky? Never seen them until this year.
How did I know it was happening? I saw the weather forecast again so I decided to look out at midnight, but that photo was mainly blue with grey white splodges. So it was overcast. Then when I looked again just before bed the sky was darker and something seemed to be happening so I took a few photos ( I can’t explain how dim it was and I basically just risked taking a picture.) the main problem is trying to keep the camera still by leaning against something as my Parkinsons is getting more shaky
Mallaband-Brown 