The Big Green Draw- Draw or post your favourite nature artwork

Tori_Scope

The Big Draw is the world's largest drawing festival. 

The theme of this year's The Big Draw is The Big Green Draw- A Climate of Change, focussing on the relationship between people and our living environments and ecosystems and highlighting how we live today and the ways in which we do and do not harmonise with nature. 

I'd like you to post some art below that you feel matches the theme, however you interpret it. It could be your own drawing or painting, a piece of art by someone else, a photograph (like those posted on the Squirrels and Friends or Wildlife Photography threads), or anything else artsy! 

It doesn't have to be good, just take a look at @Cher_Scope's doodle for Doodle Day last week  


Here's one to get us started. This is a famous photograph of a fireman giving a koala bear a drink during the 2009 Australian bushfires:

leeCal

An arty photo of a village in north wales taken by my son.

Seanchai

 Hi guys ....An very amateur oil painting I did of the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland . The bridge was lit up for the year 2000 coming in and looked beautiful all lit up.
I used to enjoy painting although I was not very good at it...
Painting helped me through a bad spell of depression . I wish I had taken a course on painting earlier in life but you know how other things take up our spare time . Now that I have spare time , my hands shake to much 🙄

Seanchai

LeeCal...that's a great photo of the village in Wales....its the kind of photo that just cries out to be painted 👍🏽
Cher ...my grandkids started out doodling and now they are really good at drawing and painting . I was hoping that e of the girls would take it up as a profession ...but my oldest grandaughter is at uni studying to be a teacher and my youngest is studying for a career in media . My oldest granddaughters art teacher was mad at her giving up art to study more " important" classes for her place at uni .
I remember that photo of the bear getting water ....it brought tears to my eyes thinking of all the people and animals that suffered during those fires ....and more recent fires like California .

Tori_Scope

That's so pretty @leeCal  

Tori_Scope

That's a great painting @Seanchai! I'm sorry your hands shake too much now. Is there another kind of art or craft you could try do you think? Being creative is definitely a mood lifter, I agree. I'm awful at drawing and anything arty really, but I'll often do little doodles and I got into adult colouring books for a while. 

I suppose teaching and media are both quite creative still. Yes, it's frustrating that art is sometimes seen as an unimportant subject, and yet most of us consume various different types of art every day! 

It brought a tear to my eye when I first saw it too I think. Yes, it feels even more poignant with the more recent fires there have been in Australia and the US. 

leeCal

@Seanchai I’ve known a few people over the years who are very good at art but don’t value it as a skill much. I feel the same way about a skill I have, perhaps because we come by it so easily we don’t value it as highly. Best wishes.  Great painting by the way.

Seanchai

Thanks guys .....I have channelled my art feelings .... I played acoustic guitar and bodhran ,flute and penny whistle  , I got my guitar at 15 years old and a couple of years later i started playing in pubs , i then joined a band  which i was in for around 20 years playing in various venues in Scotland, Ireland and England.
i started to lose my hearing ( i think it was due to my working as an engineer with huge presses and production lines .I also did a fair bit of clay pigeon shooting . 
i lost my hearing altogether in my right ear ( it was replaced by 24/7 tinnitus ....sounds like a jet engine just before take off , from the minute i awaken until i manage to get to sleep by the use of  prescibed medication ) then my left ear started going as well ...thankfully no tinnitus in that ear ( don,t know if I would have coped with tinnitus in both ears ...I was on the edge of giving up due to my right ear tinnitus) ...after this happened I gave up music , I could not even tune my guitar correctly ( the same guitar since I was 15 ...I,m now 66 in a few months .)
A specialist saw i was struggling and gave me bluetooth hearing aids . Of course he gave me these aids as a safety device as i could not hear anything ( like a car coming from my right as I cannot hear it , it sends a signal to my left aid ).
I have never lifted my guitar for 20 years now and it just lay in the corner of my room gathering dust...I could just not hear the lower notes when my hearing went.
About 6 months ago I heard a short piece of music on TV and I went to turn it off.
....but by the time I found the remote control I heard a 5 string banjo coming through clear qs a bell , it was just a mish mash of music but I heard the 5 string guitar very clearly ( because of it high pitched clear sound of the strings being plucked. I bought myself a cheapish 5 string banjo and I have now practice two or three times per day and it's coming together now ....if course I have a long way to go but I,m enjoying my new hobby of 5 string bluegrass banjo 🙂🎶

Tori_Scope

What a story @Seanchai! I'm so glad you've managed to make a return to music That moment must have been amazing.

leeCal

@senchai I have raging tinnitus in both ears and I describe it as jet engines, awful. When I first had it six years ago I thought I was dying of something, very scary. I’ve got used to it sort of but my family don’t appreciate that I have it, ie they talk to me often without realising I can’t hear them. Easily done. 

I saw this countries leading specialist and he told me he told me it was incurable and there was nothing apart from counselling which could be done. He didn’t mention Bluetooth anything. Is there a partial remedy?

Seanchai

Thanks Tori ...it was but as usual nothing is straight forward . I bought a 5 string banjo of e-bay from a fella who was buying a new on ( a new banjo can cost thousands of pounds) I managed to outbid everyone else ( £185 plus £20 for package and posting from England up here to Scotland . we kept in touch through the whole process and I tracked the parcel from England to Scotland 'Hermes' was the courier company)...the night before it was due to arrive at my house , I got a urgent post from Hermes , they said that the parcel could not be delivered ...and I was to get in touch with the sender . ...which I did , he sent me the e-mail he got from Hermes ....it said the parcel was so badly damaged that it could not be sent on to the buyer ...and...could not return it to him as it was in  a " dangerous condition" 🙄😥 The fella promptly paid  me my money back to pay pal and could not understand how it was so damaged that it was in a dangerous condition ...he had wrapped the banjo up with bubble wrap , put it in the hard case ,then bubble wrapped that as well and put it in a special cardboard box he had purchased and sealed it all with parcel tape . ( the fella joked with me saying it would take me a day to get into it as it was so well wrapped )  He was upset about it as he had it over 20 years ....I advised him to ask for photos of the damaged banjo and case . He claimed of the Hermes insurance ...but they said it was a musical instrument and they did not insure musical instruments , it added please read our exclusions for certain parcels . Their small writing meant just because he paid insurance does not mean that it was insured ...we stated in the contract ( in small print) ...they did not insure musical instrument, glass, pottery,  jewellery furniture , antiques ect. ect . ....so he got nothing for his banjo . I felt really sorry for the guy . ....about two weeks later my son sent me an article in the sun newspaper that said that over the previous couple of months Hermes failed to deliver 30,000 parcels ....yep , thirty thousand parcels 🙄...They blames a computer glitch ....but these parcels that went missing must have ended up somewhere .
Please be very careful when sending anything by courier . Very few people sell musical instruments unless they are personally collected by the buyer . 

Seanchai

Yes LeeCal ....I thought I was dying and when I went to the doctor ( after three days without sleep , he sent me in to see a specialist , meantime he gave me sleeping pills , as he saw the mess I was in without sleeping . air could handle the tinnitus to a certain extent until I saw the specialist . The specialist sent me for a hearing test in the audio department,  I went back to seek him ( the same day) and he told me I that he was sending me for some tests . I asked him what the tests were ...he said he just wanted to rule some things out . I again asked uim to be straight with me and what tests and what were they looking for ...He looked at me and told me that this had happened very quickly and my hearing went from ok to nothing. not a thing in my right ear ( bar the raging tinnitus of course ) I was just like you UK friend , and thought it must be serious as everything was happening so fast ....he told me what I wanted to know . He said he wants a scan of my brain as he suspects I might have a growth pressing in my head somewhere . ...I nearly fell off the chair ....but I did ask for it straight . I got a scan within a week and I waited 9 weeks on the results of tge scan ....thankfully it wss clear .
I attended many tinnitus clinics ( when I went to my first clinic , there was six of us in a room ) the first thing they told us was that there was no cure for tinnitus so we were just to ignore it and get on with life , as you know LeeCal , that's easier said than done. my hearing started fading in my left ear and without my hearing ai I cannot year a thing ....well....stone deaf with or without a hearing aid in my right ear ( which they call " a masker " to try to limit the sound of tinnitus ...I,m afraid it does not help but with my left hearing aid in I can hear 40% ...so I cannot complain really . I have saw crying in the tinnitus classes asking for help as they felt they were going crazy with the tinnitus ...I felt the exact same and you probably feel the same my friend . I have tried everything from acupuncture to hoppi  candles in my ears . Nothing works I,m afraid . At times i really feel on my own as it's impossible 5o explain what it sounds like ....or what causes it . ( my first tinnitus class was 20 years ago ....my last class was a couple of years ago ) the only difference was that the were four or five in my first class ....and now they fill a small hall with tinnitus sufferers . 🙄 Best of luck for the future LeeCal . 
Please do not fall for the conmen online who claim to have a cure for tinnitus ....I nearly did fall for it as I was so desperate I would have done anything to alleviate this terrible jet engine in my right ear . A guy ( who sounded very plausible) told me he had tinnitus himself but because he was a doctor he found a way to get rid of tinnitus for good ....it was all lies . But it shows that some people play on other peoples desperation just to get money , this guy was going to send me a disk to play into my tinnitus ear each day for twenty minutes , within two weeks my tinnitus would be gone . Of course it sounds good but it was a pure con whom many had fallen for .🙄 If they ever find a cure  for tinnitus the NHS will be the first to know . oh I ended up with Menieres disease and I had to give up driving as it could hit me at any time , two years ago I was working away in the greenhouse and the world started to spin , I tried to make it to the house but fell ....I then crawled on my all four into the house and lay in bed with my eyes closed ....it was like I had drank far to much as the ceiling was spinning around ( I do not drink at all ) . Best of luck my friend 👍🏽🙏🏻

Tori_Scope

Blimey, I didn't know any of that @Seanchai. Thanks for the heads-up! What a nightmare.

Seanchai

Thank you for reading my rather lengthy post Tori ....to be honest  , I had never heard of menieres . ...although if I mention tinnitus I reckon 50% of people say they have tinnitus as well . I know many do have tinnitus , like a light ringing in their ear , but it is a nuisance more than anything and does not affect their life in general . Some of us are not so lucky and it steals any hearing in one or both ears . It's the first thing I hear when wakening in the morning , I used to love wakening up to birds chirping . In the first few days of hearing it I thought I was going crazy , the only way I can describe it is non stop jet engines , just before take off . The tinnitus clinic/classes told us from the start that the only way to beat it is to ignore it ....easier said than done . If I had the same noise in my left ear as well , I don,t think I would be around if not for the understanding of my wife and family ( even though they do not know what its like) . I wondered how many of the audio experts (who took the classes and were telling us to just ignore the tinnitus, )  actually had tinnitus . I started asking each of them if they had ever had tinnitus ....I,m afraid none of them ever actually had tinnitus ...but at least they were trying to help us sufferers . Any outside experts that came in to give us a talk on trying various things ( Reiki, acupuncture etc) ...most admitted they never had tinnitus but I think the tinnitus sufferers realised that , as the experts would start chatting to us and then turn to their flip charts but keep on talking . 
Of course it was not their fault that 90% of the class were deaf and were reading their lips. 
I watched a short documentary a couple of years ago , taken a survey in a shopping centre , stopping young people with earphones in the centre to check how loud the earphones were set ...almost all of them had their volumes far to high and were warned that they would more than likely have hearing problems as they get older. 
There was maybe an excuse for me as I worked in heavy engineering and there were no ear defenders used until the mid 70's, I also played in a band for 20 years . I keep advising my children and grandchildren not to mess around with their hearing ....but i doubt if my grandchildren are paying attention ( like most teenagers ) 😮🙄😥

Tori_Scope

Tinnitus is something I'm quite scared of getting @Seanchai. I try to be careful with my hearing though, and avoid listening to music too loudly through my headphones.

Ah yes, it's good that protective equipment is more commonplace for engineers and the like now. 

Seanchai

Yes Tori .... you must take care of your hearing ...please . 
I would not wish tinnitus on anybody . The authorities avoid calling it " self inflicted " but their language is becoming a bit stronger . If that's what it takes then fare enough . My tinnitus is not because of something I did ....but because of something I did not do . Of course we never knew about the pitfalls of noise on one of our senses ...we do now and we must act accordingly . At least companies are required to put up warnings about not wearing ear defenders. 
I hope everyone pays attention ...of course its mostly teenagers who like listening to loud music in their earphones . We will have a vast rise in tinnitus in the coming years and there is no cure .

leeCal

I measured my tinnitus at around 80 decibels some years ago but often these days it’s louder. 😩

Seanchai

I have never had my tinnitus measured LeeCal .....but one day ( when my left ear was not to bad ) whilst the audiologist had my hearing aid wired up too their computer, (tuning my aid  it in) ...I heard the exact sound of my tinnitus ,coming from the computer . I told her that that was the exact sound of my tinnitus ( jet engine 24/7)...she looked at me and asked if my tinnitus was as loud as that ? Yep , that's the exact sound I hear in my right ear . She said she would be back in a minute , she came back with another audiologist ( to let them hear the sound I take it ) ...she went away and before she turned it in another audiologist came in to hear the " noise" I hear in my right ear. She asked if I had had a scan recently ? 
yep, about six months before was my last scan , after yet another visit to the specialist .
I,m sure she copied that very sound on to another machine she wired up ...I just hope it can help others .  
My tinnitus never changes  volume or sound . I always wondered if air pressure changed my hearing in my left ear as two years ago I could not hear a thing , absolutely nothing at all. I went down to my GP and he made an urgent appointment for a specialist at the hospital ....yet another scan  but nothing showed up ...thank God.  I was really quite frightened at losing all hearing .
within a few months its was backmtomwhere it was  , no hearing in my right ear whatsoever and very poor hearing with my hearing aid in my left ear 🙄
There was a question and answer  session at the tinnitus clinic , I asked if they think that air pressure could change hearing levels...the answer I got was " never heard of that " next question please . oh well ....onward and upward .
I hope your tinnitus eases a bit in the coming months LeeCal .👍🏽🙏🏻

leeCal

Hi @Seanchai if you download an app which measures decibels then tune in a radio to give white noise, have your head one metre from the radio and your app now turn up the white noise until you can only just hear your tinnitus and read off how many decibels the sound is. That’s how everyone can read their tinnitus loudness. 

Mine doesnt get softer it just sometimes get louder especially if I’m stressed, ie increased blood flow. I too was given an MRI scan because of its sudden onset but nothing untoward was found.

Seanchai

hi LeeCal ..that sounds ( no pun intended ) good ....but I have no hearing whatsoever in my right ear ( the one with  jet engine noise) I can hear in my left ear with head phones...my son let me try his expensive headphones and I heard them ok ( these headphones that are wireless and fit in your ear . ...I tried it in my right  ear , I said to him that its switched off as I nothing whatsoever in sound...I used to be able to hear a distant mumble but his earphone was on nearly full and I could not hear it at all in my right ear ...not a peep 🙄😥
I could put up with being completely deaf ....but I doubt I could manage with the level I have of tinnitus in my right ear .....at times I just do not want to be here and I doubt very much if I would be here if my left ear had tinnitus in it .
I was quite amazed the amount of actors and members of  well known groups that have tinnitus ....although it should not really amaze me and such group members should be pleading to their listeners to turn the volume down a bit .👍🏽

leeCal

Hi @Seanchai that’s a pity.

incidentally if you want someone to be informed that you’re posting to them put the @ sign before their onscreen name, that way they get notified. 🙂

Seanchai

@leeCal .....i will do my friend 👍🏽