Art with a smile in Eastbourne

Talented artist John Martin, who was born the month before the Second World War broke out, has been staying at Sovereign Lodge since July.

For a while, he gave up on painting because of Parkinson’s; now he is determined to put Parkinson’s to “the back of my head”, with support and encouragement from activity coordinator Tracy Wenham.

“I love doing it. It gives me a lot of pleasure.”

And it is great to resume painting now – a great relaxation as well as a challenge, to get better and better the more he paints and develops his skills as an artist. The pleasure is also in the response he gets.

“I have come back to painting. The pleasure is achieving things.

“I get up some days and I think I will sit and draw, and what comes into my head, I just put on paper.

“When I get the finished result, I get the people around me to tell me what they think. And they say lots of nice thin