Making a Painting

My goal here is to get these folks to experience the joy of 

making a painting. 

Today, I xeroxed a bunch of simple landscape painting images 

 cut out of art magazines and then made them into cards. 

Each patient was given paint, a pencil, a good sized brush, 

water and a piece of watercolor paper. 

We had them choose a painting "they liked"

and then asked them to think about the location,

 the time of year, the weather etc. 

We then drew some lines in pencil 

to get them started. 

Once they got going

the results were amazing! 

Mary Lou needed a lot of prodding.

She kept saying, "I don't know how to do this."

FYI. She was wearing a sweater the same color as that sky. 

Janet chose the most complicated image. 

and was thrilled with her painting. 

She told me she "just let it go".  

Barbara just does her own thing.

As she dibs and dabs those brush strokes 

she is so happy.

Gloria started this and then decided she had to leave. 

I think this is pretty amazing as is! 

Love those colors! 

Josephine is almost blind and yet worked very hard at this. 

She was the most content today than I have ever seen her.  

Fran was absorbed while doing this the whole time.

She is more functional than most in the group.

Now THIS is what I've been hoping for.   

They clearly enjoyed creating a painting.