New Twist

There was an Open House at Renaissance Garden today 

for the independent residents who may be moving there soon. 

The room we usually meet in was used for the reception, 

so I did a demo on the third floor. 

Where the patients live. 

I tried to pare down my gear 

so I wouldn't take up too much room. 

I was out of my comfort zone, to be sure. 

I quickly did my map before they got there to save time.

 I had one hour for the whole "program"!

The set -up with 

2:00 pm sun moving VERY fast

What was I thinking? 

 For some reason, I first painted the background a dull light yellow.
There was no drama at all and it drowned out the daisies!
I quickly tried to cover it with dark purple.
I had used so much paint, it was a mess trying to cover.
I think I can fix this and bring it to them next time. 

I really need to practice talking and painting at the same time. 

I had most of them engaged with me the whole time.

A few slept. 

Note: The cool women who run the programs have framed 

some of the work done by the patients.

It's hung in the Garden Room and the patients can't believe it. 

Previous Post

I copied a previous post from my painting blog in to this one. 

Enjoy! 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011

New Work from Alzheimer Patients

I'd like to share some work done by the Alzheimer patients this week. 

Our topic was "still life" paintings. 

I brought two vases with flowers, some fruit, and some postcards of still life paintings.

This woman very diligently and quietly "copied" this image.
(It's of an acrylic painting by my friend Page Railsback.)

Barbara even put the chair in!  

Lorraine was a watercolorist on the Cape.
Look how she modeled the vase!

Bob told me he wasn't going to paint.
Then an aid told me he was into baseball.
We mixed up some blue and talked about what teams wear blue uniforms.
I told him to make a mark in each color for the teams that wore that color.
Orange was Baltimore. Red cardinals.
 Can you see how he made the green mark an "A"? 

This gal is just the happiest and agreeable of the bunch.
She "dances" the whole time she's there. 

Talking About Trees

Once I got everyone settled, we talked about trees. 

The different shapes, different "personalities" they have, 

and the fact that spring is coming and the trees will soon be covered with leaves. 

I passed around postcards with images of trees painted by various artists that they could copy 

or they could make up their own. 

Here is some of the work from yesterday's session:

This woman got right to work! 

For some reason this one couldn't leave the edge of the paper.
She had all those colors  in there, they were just on top of each other.

This is from Lorraine, the watercolorist from the Cape.
She is so happy when painting, it just makes my day! 

Marie told me those trees were boring so she decided to make them Christmas trees. 

This gal "made up" those trees on her first one.
Then asked if she could paint the daffodils on the window sill.
She was really into it! 

I love this.
She worked so hard and couldn't wait to sign it!

I bought those paint sets on line at Discount School Supply and they seem to work better than the individual colors I used before. 

They can manage the smaller brushes better too.

Next week, I am going to do a simple still life demo for them in oils.