A MAN with Parkinson’s disease will be auctioning copies of a £10,000 painting in Watlington during Oxfordshire Artweeks in aid of a research charity.
Rob Smith will be at the town hall, which will be open from 11am to 5pm from tomorrow (Saturday) to Monday, May 27. It is venue no 357.
Mr Smith, who was diagnosed in 2021, said: “The cause is unknown and there is no cure. It is like a thief or a vandal that steals or spoils every aspect of your life, from your dignity to your smile.
“I’d suspected as much from the very first twitching of my little finger on my left hand so the news came as no surprise. Nonetheless, I was devastated.
“Then last year my daughter invited me to meet her in Istanbul. It was there that the idea of drawing My Parkinson’s came to me.
“It was important to me personally to be able to visualise my enemy to try to understand how it works.
“The fact that it might help other people to comprehend what sufferers deal with was never a consideration, this picture is ‘my’ Parkinson’s. It was never meant to elicit pity or understanding, but if it achieves those things, then so be it. So, armed with my small sketch book, I put pen to paper.
“In a nutshell, I see Parkinson’s as a machine, unstoppable like the hands of a clock that tremor as they turn and in so doing operate a conveyor belt carrying the things I love doing and all the memories of things I have done and randomly dropping them into furnaces to be lost forever. All the while, inexorably tightening and compressing the energy of life, symbolised by the green snake, until it can move no more.
“This picture has no price to me that would be adequate but I would sell it for the right reason, for as a result of its creation I have discovered the joy of colour, art and painting.
“Since Istanbul there has been no day when I have not drawn, painted or imagined. My life is illuminated as a result and it is helping me to cope with the disease.
“Parkinson’s is one of the fastest-growing diseases in the country and to beat it needs money for research into treatments and one day a cure.
“Therefore, I have made copies of my painting My Parkinson’s to be sold by blind auction. The top five bids will receive a limited edition print to frame and keep.
“All proceeds from the auction will go to Parkinson’s UK for research, so please take a ticket and make a bid with your name, email address or phone number.
“The framed original is available, priced at £10,000, with every penny going to Parkinson’s UK.”
