New paintings and regular art updates.
How to start a painting working from a blank canvas. I suggested they could start by changing the colour of the canvas. That will give you feel for how the paint goes on. Think about whether you want the canvas upright (portrait) lf on its side (landscape). You could do a gradient of colour or greys so it’s lighter towards the top or one side. Try and think of a simple subject to start. How are your drawing skills and do you want realism or an abstract subject. Most of all – enjoy!
At a local garden centre I saw this lovely passion flower. Mine has died off so I will have to plant a new one.
My Parkinsons is playing up this weekend and I haven’t been out. All my limbs are shaking and aching and I’m having to hang on to my phone hard to stop it jiggling all over the place.
I would like to go out and do some gardening, but there have been loads of heavy showers and I don’t feel stable enough on my feet. Tomorrow a lot of things need doing and I hope I feel a bit better by then.
How do you relax?
I’ve been shown how to do box breathing. You sit upright and close your eyes. Breath deeply into your belly…
Basically breathe in for a count of four
Hold your breath for four
Breathe out for four.
Hold your breath for four.
There are other more complex methods of yogic breathing, including alternative nostril breathing. But this technique is easy to follow.
You can carry on doing box breathing till you feel relaxed.
My upstairs stairs window.
My life had been quiet during the last few weeks. Long boring days, my ivy has been growing and I can trace it’s growth in my memory, almost like watching paint dry. I need to get someone in to help.
My brain was frazzled by the heat and now it’s getting cold I’m more interested in keeping warm and cozy. The cats keep me company, either on my lap or on the bed. The last three days have been worse, the skin on my legs is sore and I’m starting a course of antibiotics tomorrow. I think I have a temperature. I’ve been too stationary with not being able to drive so I think I need bucking up a bit. I’ll try and do a bit of walking tomorrow. Fingers crossed I’ll feel more myself soon. X
Why do you blog?
I seem to have a lot to say, opinions, thoughts. I’ve recently joined a local writers group. I guess I think my words are worth reading? But that’s just my opinion. I may be boring, I might be showing off.
I have suffered imposter syndrome in the past when I was working. I think blogging helps me feel a little bit validated. Having somewhere to share my thoughts and ideas, to share my art. Something to be remembered by. So that I have an existence outside of these four walls.
I recently looked for family details on the Internet. I am mentioned lots of times because I use lots of social media. But the family? Not much detail. Because their lives were mainly pre Internet…
I still keep on blogging..
Where did your name come from?
When I was little I thought Mal-la-band meant the bad band in French. I convinced myself that it meant the bad band. Although that perhaps would have read “La band mal?”
I imagined myself as a part of a band of pirates, sailing the seven seas, looking for buried treasure and adventure.
Mal and Mer mixed up in my mind, I was quite young and I also thought it meant a bad sea or stormy sea.
As I learnt to spell my name I became aware that other children were taking the micky out of me. There was a type of margarine called “Blueband” and guess what exciting word kids in my school would call me? Yeah, you got it.
But when I got married I kept my original surname along with my hubbys. I didn’t want to lose it. I’m attached.
And it’s meaning? I don’t want to know. I just like my ideas.
I’m in a writing group and I hand write stories and poems. But our latest challenge has me worried. It calls for us to write a piece 2000 words long! I suddenly feel like I’m back at school or college writing essays.
You need to understand that my computer is bust and I type all my blogs on my phone. My Parkinsons makes my hands and arms shake and my hands cramp up, so my jottings are usually brief, maybe too brief. But I like to be concise.
I find hand writing suits me more because I can place a note book on the arm of my chair and write things down as I think of them. But 2000 words? I can’t do a word count unless I add up say every 20 or 50 or so of them. Then total up the numbers at the end.
The other thing is reading out. I stutter now. My speaking voice is affected by Parkinsons, it’s frustrating when I want to get a good delivery of my words.
Oh well, I must keep going. X
A little exhibition is coming up in September and I am not sure what, if anything, I can paint. My vision is quite odd now, a bit doubled, a bit blurred.
I’m thinking of possibly painting cats. Just some simple and gentle and nice! With a bit of character. Not a generic cat… Not a pretty cat, a growl tiger, curmugeonly, interesting cat… I don’t know, golden eyes? But first I need to fish some paints out!
My day has been spent shut inside the house. Not wanting to go out, shaky and achy. My feet are cramping, my hands tremble and twist tightly. I started doomscrolling which was a mistake. I also wanted to keep out of the heat and humidity.
This is the reality of a bad day of Parkinsons. Quiet, just mooching, worrying, thinking about the future. Things I can’t do. Fears of what I need to be careful about.
I need to put washing on the line, I really need shopping. But I had trouble washing my hair. I’m not supposed to get water in my eye because of the surgery, but leaning backwards in the shower feels very unsteady.
Reading about other people’s problems makes me realise how much people have to put up with. Life isn’t always easy.
BUT my Cat just jumped on my lap. She’s happy and purring… Not so bad then..
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
Because then I could get rid of a few! I have over 1000 but some are a bit obscure, and some were my hubby’s… Huge books about planes, submarines, ships, bicycles, cars. Also books about the second world war. Then there are my collections of old science fiction books, I don’t necessarily want to keep them all. I don’t want to get rid of them all, so my book shop would actually be a stall that I can easily pack up and take away (except they weigh a ton).
Mallaband-Brown