Monday 19th March 2018

We made £219.99 for the St John's Hospice during my Art Exhibition on the Thursday 15th March thanks to all my friends old and new.
I would like to say a big thank you to everybody who turned up to look at all my 76 pictures and would like to say that I still have 74 of them left.
Well, that's not exactly correct. Some of the ones I got back from people to show in the exhibition have been returned to their owners, but I do have a lot of my pictures still up for sale.

I have been having a good rest since the Exhibition finished. My youngest daughter had treated me to a couple of hours of Spar treatment and a lovely meal at Archers on the shore at Hest Bank.

When I manage to get the house back to normal again I will try and finish the Salvator Mundi painting and I will post the picture of it on here. Don't hold your breath it might be a few weeks before it's ready.

Saturday the 3rd of March 2018

I'm intrepidly looking forward to the preview on Friday the 9th of March and the actual Exhibition on the 15th of March, which is the Thursday. 

Only six more days left to get the Art Exhibition up to the best I can get it.

As the room I am going to open for people to come and see the Art-work is still fitted out with the all the wonderful Oak shelves, I have had to screen it all off with some curtain material. So it's not ideal, but I've done the best I can.
After all, am I not the best bodger in town?

So far I think I'm on track. I have hung about 65 paintings that I have painted since I have statred painting, which is only about 13 years. Take out the three years I couldn't pick up a paint brush because my friend / teacher had passed away I think I did ok.

I am just finishing off a painting I had started about 6 months ago and have been tweaking it for weeks and now want it to be the star of the show.

Well! I like it. and it's not finished yet.

I have abandoned the Salvator Mundi picture as that would take far too long to finish to a good standard, but he is in the collection with a big notice to remind people that he is far from finished.

Hopefully when people purchase one of my creations they will be able to stay for a glass of vine and a nibble of crackers and cheese when they pick up their paintings.

I have called it the "Buyers Party" and it will start a minute past 6 Pm - (what ever time??) Hopefully 8pm ( by then I'll be too tired to notice the time)

I am hoping that lots of people will turn up on the preview on the Thursday the 9th of March. Between 2pm and 8pm and reserve some paintings with a deposit and we can collect lots of money for the St John's Hospice.

There will be refreshments Tea, Coffee and biscuits and hopefully they will donate generously into the Hospice collection Boxes.

So wish me good luck and see you there.
Maria. X

Practice Makes Perfect.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. BUT IT'S NOT EASY.!!

I am finding it a bit baffling how to put images on this page with the titles under the pictures.

So I will have another go.

This picture has been in the making for a couple of years. This one is version 3. It will be on loan from the lovely friend who I have painted it for. NOT FOR SALE!!!
I could take commissions for it. 

Hilda Barton.

 One of the ladies I have dedicated the Art Exhibition to.

Hurrah!!!

I still have to find how to get my wonderful friend
Ethel's
 picture on here who has taught me how to paint.
 I have her picture on file but this site will not let me access it.
Probably operator error.

I will have another go later.

Out for lunch today.
Ta ta for now.

ART EXHIBITION 15TH March 2018

Art Exhibition

By

   

Maria Atkinson

Donations to St John’s Hospice Lancaster.

106 Heysham Rd. Heysham Morecambe. 
LA3 1DH

Sunset from Sandylands Prom Morecambe
with Heron on the old paddling pool

15^th March 10 am – 6pm

            

    Buttermere and Fleethwith Pike                                                 

Ulswater looking towards Glenredding 

Amarylis

Big Bang 1 

 

                             Sunsetting near Black Comb from Sandylands Prom at Morecambe

***

Refreshments available. Would like you to pop donations into the Hospice collection boxes.

****

                                                                                      

       I am dedicating the exhibition to the memory of two wonderful friends: Ethel Searl and Hilda Barton

                                 

BOOK YOUR PR-VIEW FOR FRIDAY 9th MARCH
 RESERVE ANY OF THE 60+ARTWORK

 By:

Texting 07570078908, Facebook: Maria Atkinson,

Phone 01524 413265

****

Art is very much a personal preference, so I will not be offended if you dislike any or all of my work.

Constructive criticism is the way we learn and sometimes it is very useful but not always appreciated. But I am always happy to listen.

   *

Last year was a bit of a disaster for me. I was a passenger on the 755 bus when it was involved in a crash. I ended up in a neck brace for nearly four months. Housebound and unable to do much. Standing in front of an easel painting was the only thing I was able to do with comfort. 

Then after I had a skin graft to remove some cancer cells on my nose I had bad news and I had to have another operation. Feeling depressed I decided to immerse myself in something positive, hence the Art Exhibition.

Once I started I decided to do it for a couple of good causes.

I’ve always felt passionate about St John’s Hospice at Lancaster. Some of my friends and both my parents have had wonderful treatment from their dedicated Doctors and staff.

In particular Ethel Searl the lady who has taught me how to paint and

Hilda Barton, she was my very dear friend. Both of these ladies had their lives cut short by Cancer.

My other good cause is closer to home. I have four wonderful grand children who are all coming up to the age of going to Universities. So if I sell any of my art work I will donate a percentage to the St John’s Hospice and the rest will be put into a kitty for the grandchildren for their education.

*

A bit about me.

I was born 15^th of March 1943 in Budapest, Hungary.

My father became a deserter in the 1956 uprising when the government ordered him to shoot the people during the revolution.

Hungarian’s are fond of a good revolt.

I think there is a little bit of Attila the Hun in every Hungarian.

We had to flee Hungary as my father would have been shot for refusing to shoot the rabbles.

*

A quick time travel.

After a short stay in Austria we came to England. I attended school for 3 days at Morecambe High. I caught nits in my hair and my mother wouldn’t let me go back.  I was only a few weeks away from legal leaving age so nobody bothered.

For my first job I was as a counter assistant on the Cosmetic counter at Lancaster Woolworth's. Not speaking a word of English I had to learn rapidly.

I had about 19 jobs before I was 21 years of age.

A restless soul, always looking for something better. Just like (Attila the Hun)

A few of the jobs in that colossal number were jobs I went back to a few times. In those days you could turn up at a new job, have the interview and get offered the job just because you came over ok on the day.

Periodically I was on short time at Burling and Mending on Dallas Road in Lancaster and I needed to work full time. On Tuesday I had the interview and started the job Wednesday at the Matting Mill in Lancaster. After I had to collect some items from a warehouse full of rats I nipped back to the Labour Exchange in my dinner hour to ask for another job. Interview went well at the Slipper Factory in Carnforth. Got the job and started my new Vulcanising job at 8 am on Thursday. So in one week I was actually employed in 3 different establishments. No CV, no letter from last employer. There didn’t seem to be a problem getting a job in the good old days.

I got married in 1963, delivered two wonderful daughters. Linda and Carol, who in turn presented four wonderful grandchildren?

After I got divorced I started to re build my new life. Worked hard at 3 different jobs to get back on my feet again.

I was a professional interviewer for a few Market Research companies and at the same time I worked part time as a Nursing assistant at the Moor Hospital two night a week. For a short time I had my own Keep Fit Club on Common Garden Street in Lancaster until the Fire inspection closed me down as the ceilings were not compliant with the fire regulations.

Eventually I opened my own Book Shop and that is where I met Ethel. She used to buy her art materials from me. We became firm friends and after I retired she was very happy to teach me to paint.

I would get lost in the canvas and burn the midnight oil till early morning.

Unfortunately when Ethel passed away I couldn’t pick up a paint brush for years. So I have a few unfinished paintings. I will put them into the exhibition so people can see them even though they are ABANDONED!  

William Turner did it all the time.  They will eventually be done soon….

 ***

          Some of the paintings have their own stories of why they were painted. Some took months to do. None of them ever felt like I have actually finished painting them.

Some of them, like my Salvator Mundi, which is the one I am painting at the moment is just for fun and because I can.

 I think everybody should have a painting that has just been sold at Sotheby’s for $450 Million.

When it’s finished I will put the photo on my blog page so everybody can have a look. I will try and keep up with it as often as I can.

Hope you  enjoy the paintings I've posted. There will be over 50 images on display on the day.

Kind regards,

Maria. X

Friday 2nd of February 2018 at 106 Heysham Road. Heysham. Morecambe. LA3 1DH

I can actually see the floor in the 'shop / dining room where I am hoping to host the Art Exhibition on Thursday the 15th March displaying all the art I have done since I started painting.

Now it is getting closer to the date I am getting a little apprehensive. It's one thing having an idea to focus on something  to forget your troubles and another actually going trough with it. I have hung up some of the art and managed to cover up the massive tapestry that would have looked bad behind the paintings. It has taken a few changes of under garments as I had to balance quite high on an old stepladder to nail the curtain to the wall. At the age of 74 rapidly approaching 75 it's challenging to say the least. (Also I needed the wall space.)

So far I think I am on track. So keeping fingers crossed  it will all go ok.

I have just sent an Email to St John's Hospice so they can supply an official collection box so the donations can go straight in there on some items I am donating. (other than my art work.) Also if anybody wants to give money for the refreshments I hope they will give generously straight into the collection box.

I hope the hospice will be happy with the 10% donations on any sales of my art work, the rest of the money will also go towards a good cause as my grandchildren are all coming up to the age where you have to think about Universities.

If all else fails and nobody turns up, my friends who have offered to help on the day will be well fed on Birthday cake, crackers and cheese and biscuits.

Looking on the positive side I'm sure we will all be busy showing people around and raising lots of cash for good causes.

I have asked if  people interested to come would indicate by either texting, Emailing or phoning up so we could have an idea how many to cater for.

The contact numbers are: Landline:      01524 413265
                                          Mobile;        0757 0078908
                                          Email:          marika1943@live.co.uk
                                          Facebook:    Unofficial Marika

 Hope to see everybody, don't forget to bring a friend. X

Sat 27^th Jan 2018

Just a very quick catch up to continue on the balancing the good and bad of 2017.

As I wrote last week the neck brace went on and I struggled with it not sleeping for the duration of it being on my neck. Maybe that is a bit exaggerated because I obviously sleep but not well. But I’ll by-pass that as now it is a distant memory and it doesn’t do well to dwell on things.

So the good bit is, the very first day I could have the brace off for 6 hrs during the day, my friends took me for a lovely walk in the Lakes and as if by magic the weather was fairly good. By my standards of appreciating things, that walk cancelled out all the previous months of discomfort. It is now fairly even again.

Then the balance slipped again into the dark side. The biopsy taken from the bridge of my nose came back with bad news attached. I had a ‘morphing’ (my interpretation of the technical name) Basal cell that had to be removed. When Mr Hampton explained what it was, I whole heartedly agreed with him that it has to come off. Very soon the scales tipped into favour as I had the op very quickly after the diagnosis. (Obviously someone had given back word as it was heading up towards Christmas,) I gratefully jumped in and was whisked off into the operating room. Mr Hampton and his colleagues were wonderful and it was all good again.

But not for long!!!!

The biopsy came back that not a big enough patch was taken and there was signs of this “THING” still at the edge, I would have to have another bit taken out. Mercifully not another graft, just a slither of skin. (Now, nearly at the end of Jan 2018, best forgotten!)

At the time I was a little miffed at being so unlucky, but hey-ho, we must get on. My philosophy is to get buried into a project. Which sometimes work, and sometimes it does not.

My good idea was that I burry myself into a commitment and then I won’t have time to mope about and feel sorry for myself. Hence the stupid idea of promising and advertising on Facebook that I will do a Solo Person’s Art Exhibition on my 75^th birthday on 15^th of March 2018.

We are getting to the good bit of 2017 as an invitation came from RLI that Mr Hampton will do the op on 29^th of Dec. Hurrah!!! I thought that means I will only have the stitches to contend with in the New Year and it will all be good.

Back in the realms of the balancing it all out. Op went well. (Nearly forgotten. Nearly!) So the year ended with the balance in the good. It just meant that I stayed in the house again for the duration of these delightful blue stitches sticking out on top of my nose. On the whole fairly good outcome. Especially now I have found out that the biopsy came back all clear.

I am now all done with 2017 and it can go into the furthest recesses of the memory data. I just have to concentrate on the pending disaster of my Art Exhibition, which is looming up very quickly.

I am hoping to put a few pictures up on here and on Facebook of some of my art.

So, chop-chop! Pacey - pace. Get moving!
Sorry Can't upload any pictures. X

NEW YEAR, NEW ME.

I SEEM TO HAVE GOT MIXED UP IN THIS INTERNET TECHNOLOGY.   Mon 15th Jan 2018

It is obvious to me now I have logged onto my reading4fun4all blog, that I haven't been posting my messages to it at all!!
I have been posting to the Google or Facebook blog thing.

SO!!! a quick update.

 Had quite q horrendous time with the Basal cells on my nose. Unfortunately it is a type that the surgeons don't like to  leave, (Something like Morphing cells!! Probably not quite right name, but it had to be cut out) so I have had 3 operations since I posted last.

Only yesterday the nurse took out the 12 ugly blue stitches, but had to put a few trips of suchers, placed very artistically in a form of a cross. They have to stay on for a few days as the difficult bit in the curve of my nose didn't heal as well.

As soon as I have got over feeling sorry for myself, I will be back to the 'blog thing'.

I am still painting as that seems to sooth my whole self.

I was hoping to do a one person Art Exhibition on in my front room on my 75th birthday on the 15th of March this year.
For one day only open day. (I like a challenge.)
I have had a few attempts at the 'flow art.' Some good, some not so good. But it is a new thing for me, so I will keep at it.

At the moment I am struggling with the right eye of the Salvator Mundi picture I have decided to paint.
I will put a copy of it in progress when I am half happy with it.

Ta Ta for now.

Maria. X

The art of balancing.

Mon 16^th Jan 2018

This blog was supposed to go out on the 18^th Nov 2017 but obviously I didn’t do a good job of loading it on.

The end of 2017 is fast approaching, it is now the middle of November 6.30 am. For the last hour I had been trying to get back to sleep.

I remembered the queen’s quote in her speech of her horrible-lest year.

We all had one of those in our lives and I’ve been toiling about mine this year as to where on the horrible scale I’m going to put this year down to.

Hate wasting my time languishing in bed so I threw the towel in and got up.

2017 must be fairly high up there.

I’m not for dwelling too much on the bad as I do believe in the balance of Nature and the universe so I will have to counter balance it with a few good years in my life.

As the events flash by in my mind it all gets jumbled up with good and bad years. Obviously If I’m to make any rational judgement on the whole, it will all need to be scientifically analysed.

Getting the scales out and dropping each attribute into the pan I do need to have some breakfast

Switching the kettle on in this house isn’t as easy as in other people’s houses. I have to hold the switch down until the kettle actually gets to boiling point.

You might ask why I don’t get a kettle that you can switch on and leave.

There’s nothing wrong with it apart from being a needy kettle. Functions well (apart from the switch problem) and looks good in all its glassy glory.

Just slightly broken. It fits in well with all the other stuff I own. To name but a few all with a little story of their own.

First and not in any order of importance is the dining table that has to have two marble tiles under its two window side legs to level it up so we can dine on it without having to chase your food down the slope.

One cupboard in the dining room (disused shop/junk room) where I bodged the flooring to stop it falling into the gaping hole by placing some cardboard and newspaper (pasted together for strength) under it. That was 15 years ago so I suppose my bodge job wasn’t too bad after all. Of course it could never be moved as the repair is based on the science of a whisper and a prayer.

The battered picture on the wall depicting two friends having a picnic on the Heysham Rocks at Half Moon Bay dressed in some knitted swimwear which I had rescued from over another gaping hole when we were resuscitating  this house/ shed/shop.

The large sections of the shelf unit from the original Chemist which are missing all their beautiful little draw’s because they became part of the ‘deal’.….But I digress.

Kettle duly switched on, I am thinking that the box of chocolates I bought 3 weeks ago for somebodies Xmas present is nearly empty the only remaining chocolates that are there are the ones I don’t like. No doubt when I get desperate they too will disappear.  So much for self-control and determination. Yes I confess I am week when it comes to having temptation put in front of me. If we have to own up there’s not many people who wouldn’t have done the same.

The problem with a mind that wonders and darts about like something possessed is the inability to remember the good idea or the beginning of the idea in the first place.

 Had I managed to drop off to sleep and whole up 2 or 3 hours later I would not have remembered the beginning of the blog, maybe I would have forgotten the whole thing altogether. (I think the beginning is very important.)

Part of this year’s horridness was the ‘nose job’. 

Amazingly I am typing this part of the blog without any ophthalmic help. How I wish I had learned how to touch type. Glancing up at the screen I can see lots of blue and red underlining. Equally amazing its wonderful how the mind is over-riding the bad eye sight and I am actually placing my little fingers (more or less) on the keys I want to hit where I think the letters are? So in a way I am nearly touch Typing.

Now the heating’s been on for half an hour I can get washed and dressed and lenses in and perhaps get to grips with the initial idea of this blog from the embryo state to the conclusion.

To interpret the scale of good and bad in life, (any life, not just my own but for now I’m concentrating on just me,) it has to be approached scientifically with just balance and seriousness.

Bad.

Nose job. It actually started November 2016. I know that will mean I’m counting 2016 as a horrible year. No. Just the last 2 months. Then not all was bad as when the Dr Capewell cut out the Basal cell cancer he made such a good job of stitching the 7 stiches that after a few months the scaring disappeared completely. So that is partly good.

Balanced out.

January was unfortunately bad. As I flicked the duvet into the clean cover, something in my shoulder seemed to snap. A week later after a lovely leisurely walk of seven miles something in my right knee gave while walking downstairs in Booths at Kendal. Carefully massaging both injuries with my home made recipe of Comphrey oils a few times a day the injuries seemed to ease. So that ended January with good. Balanced out again.

February, March and April mooched on nicely.

16^th of May was very, very bad. I was looking forward to an exciting day and had it all planned to perfection. Quick appointment with Andrew at Milnthorpe at: a2ainternet.co.uk to help me with the ‘Blog thing’ as I was getting stuck and getting nowhere fast. Then have a lovely walk to Ambleside and back to Carnforth for 6pm to have my first watercolour lesson at the art shop.

That’s where it all went pear shape for the rest of the year.

The bus I was going to travel on was the 755 to Bowness which was late by about 12 minutes and as the number 5 rolled up I decided to hop onto that and change at Carnforth to the 555.

So far so good. This is where it gets a bit crazy. I looked behind us as we were traveling on a nice straight road and noticed the 755 was catching us up. So I got off the number 5 and jumped on the 755.

BIG MISTAKE!

Just as we were approaching the roundabout past Carnforth at the Truck Haven a car smashed into my bus. As I had been working out my next walking trip and was studying the time table I didn’t see the pending danger so I didn’t brace myself at the crash, hence sustained a C6 Neck injury, damaged my top lip and ended up in the Lancaster Infirmary for one week. Then nearly 4 months in a neck brace.

Balancing it all out the hospital staff, Doctors and nurses were wonderful. Mr Sanjea the wonderful Surgeon stitched my top lip and considering what he had to work with (a big chunk of my ‘Cupid’s Bow was missing,) he did a wonderful job.

The Home help Nurses were a God sent and I could not have managed without them. Two of them came every day to wash my neck and check it over for any blemishes. I mustn’t forget to mention the lovely ladies who made my bespoke neck brace in Preston Hospital.

I will continue this little saga of my balancing the rest of the year in another blog next week.