Rowan’s living well centre

[Matt2584]

Hello gang,

It’s about time I made another post. I know @iforgot may be pleased to see me posting again :).

Before anyone goes and thinks that this is a post about natural health, it isn’t. So you won’t be needing a pillow after all :).

What my post is about is a couple of years ago at Portsmouth Headway, a lady from a charity called, Brain Tumour Support, came along to visit. A while later a Brain Tumour Support group was set up using one of Headway’s room’s. I was invited to this group and a couple of other members at Headway who had brain tumours could also attend.

Brain Tumour Support’s Portsmouth group has just relocated to the Rowan’s living well centre in Waterlooville. It was my first time at Rowan’s on Thursday and I loved it. Very nice building in a very nice setting and very nice staff as well. I showed off my art to some of the staff and they loved it. I hope to go there again sometime. They do set courses at Rowan’s but you can also pop along just to have a coffee and a chat :).

It is further away from where I live which is a bit of a shame but it is accessible by bus and also my dad has retired now which means he has more time to drive me and my mum over to Rowan’s and other places. They have also been invited to have a coffee and a chat as well.

My mum likes the sound of the new position because if I and my folks do go over for a coffee, my mum also gets a chance to go around the charity shops :).

Take care and don’t forget to eat your greens :),

MJ

[cat3]

Hey you..............good to see such a positive post, and always happy hearing that your art's still being appreciated. 😖 xx

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

Hi Cat and thanks :),

I’m going to get my art displayed next year so that will spread my name a bit :).

Headway offered me help if I needed it but I said I wanted to do this on my own. They have helped me out in giving me the confidence to get this far so I thank them for that.

I collected an application form and I have had a meeting with the lady who sorts out the display. Now is the waiting game.

My work will go up for 2 months in the Discovery Centre’s Bookworm café in Gosport :). January and February 2019.

[cat3 in reply to Matt2584]

That's brilliant Matt. I hope more exposure (and the inevitable appreciation) will inspire you to continue, and develop your abilities even further.

My friend paid a couple of hundred for a portrait of his daughter and, though I didn't have the heart to say so, it was pretty second rate. You could have produced a far, far more professional & authentic representation.

And so many people want portraits of their pets too .........................aah, here I go again ; but you know there's demand out there for talent such as yours !

xx

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

Aww, thanks Cat :).

I could have drawn a better representation of your friend’s daughter, could I... and it would have been cheaper from me as well :).

I drew a picture for a lady who works at my Headway and it was of her daughter’s. I’ve got tosay that drawing people is much more of a chore than drawing animals.

I shall also say that with my drawings, in probably every picture, I never really get the measurements/proportions dead on but the thing is they always look good... or so I have been told :).

[cat3 in reply to Matt2584]

I'm sure many portraits are copied from photos ; understandable when drawing children and animals................

I understand the need for capturing images on canvas before the camera arrived, but nowadays I'm surprised that 'live' subjects would ever be used at all considering the advantages of a still photo. x

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

That is a good point though, something I havenkt really thought about before. Why draw life subjects when you can take a picture of subject first.

I would think that if you were drawing a person and they had to pose in a certain way, they would have to stay like that thoughout. It must get quite uncomfortable.

I don’t draw live subjects. I have tried before. I have drawn an apple on a table. But the main thing I don’t like about drawing life is that you could start by drawing an apple and start working on the shading and then over the course of the day the shadow will change it’s position. So you will never ever get a perfectly still subject.

I just had a thought and I think the main reason live subjects still exist today is because you can get a clearer image rather than a camera photo. I know you can get a clear shot with a camera but you can just as equally get bad shots. When I was being tutored on my art, When I would say that I was drawing from photos I was always asked if they were good, clear photos. To me it doesn’t make much difference if the photo is clear or not but for some art lovers, clear photos are preferred. I guess, with a photo you could take a picture of your dog outside but something like a leaf could blow in front of the dog as you take the shot. Whereas with live subjects you wouldn’t get this.

[cat3 in reply to Matt2584]

No, you'd take several shots 'til you had the one which captures what you (or they) are looking for.

Let's face it, with digital cameras, which give brilliant results, you can have as many images as you want at no cost, but ultimately only need to keep one & delete the rest. 😵 x