Simple Egg Shapes

The "regulars" were already sitting 

at the tables when I got there today.

Given the sudden change of season and the full moon, 

I'd just traced a simple egg shape on paper to get them started. 

I had some pre-drawn patterns ready to go 

for those who need a little guidance. 

Arlene wanted nothing to do with this 

but managed to get paint on the paper! 

This woman lives on a different floor 

and doesn't have dementia.

After she did her "madras" egg

she did this sweet still life from her head. 

Barbara wasn't her usual perky self today 

but still did her creative "thing".

She lit up when I told her they looked

buttons.

My favorite thing is when they take a blank paper and just 

paint whatever comes to them. 

Rita wanted to throw this away and I pleaded with her 

not too! 

Laundry on a Line

Everyone loves paintings of laundry 

hanging on a line.
My dear friend and assistant, Judith Schroeter
came up with the idea and we showed them images of
some wonderful laundry paintings she had done.
They were delighted with the subject and dug right in.

For some, we drew in some shapes for them to fill in.  

Barbara really enjoyed this, as you can see!  

Rita didn't feel very well

and was upset about the paint going outside the lines. 

I told it was the wind blowing the clothes around. 

This woman did this all by herself, smiling the whole time. 

If they finish early, we like to give them 

blank paper to do whatever they want. 

Rita, who was feeling better by then,

did this amazing little painting out of her head. 

A garden, rain, the beach and an ocean. 

That is the kind of work that makes me 

know that what we are doing, 

is doing some good! 

Making Progress!

Today I felt a break through of some kind. 

Not sure what it was, 

but the patients were eager and happy to get right to work! 

I brought images of simple landscape paintings 

for them to use as inspiration. 

We got them started by drawing the horizon line

(and more if needed).  

They just took off from there, and the results were amazing! 

Mary Lou, forever reluctant, allowed herself 

to put paint on the paper! 

I always encourage Barbara to just "do her thing" 

and today she happily went at it. 

Very quietly, this woman worked happily the whole time. 

That dot on the image I gave her is a very small boat. 

I love her version of it! 

We drew some lines for Pat and then she was off and running.

The whole time, telling us

"I don't know what I am doing!" 

This woman was very wary at first and said the white paper "distracted her."

(Later she told me she used to paint with oils! No wonder!) 

Look at that sky! 

This is one of my favorites.

This was a real struggle for his gal, 

but she was so excited about it the whole time!  

I just think this is an unbelievable

interpretation!  

I am thrilled that, as much as they protest; 

"I'm not an artist!  I can't do this! I don't know what I'm doing! 

What am I supposed to do next? I want to go home!"....

they manage to do this amazing work! 

I tell them that most "artists" don't know what they are doing! 

They just do it for the joy of doing it. 

There are no "mistakes" in art, just "happy accidents". 

They get a kick out of that. 

It warms my heart that they seem "get" the joy 

of just putting paint on paper 

and letting go a little! 

Stripes

Judith took this image of a piece of art 

she saw at the South Shore Art Center last summer. 

We thought this would be another great "group project" for our group.

I wasn't sure how they would react, and was pleasantly surprised.

I gave them pink paper to put under the watercolor paper,

so they could "go beyond the border". 

We told them to cover the whole paper

with bands of different colors. 

This woman was upset about that "drip".

I told her it looked like the sun in a sunset. 

This woman is an artist and loved playing with the paint. 

She just couldn't stay with stripe idea. 

Many of them just started putting stripes of color on the pink paper

so we just let it go. 

Amazing! 

The woman who is an artist did this with just one color!

Here are some of the pieces put together to make a 

"blanket of stripes"! 

Again, I am finding that they are happiest when putting paint on paper. 

It really doesn't matter 

what it is that they are painting. 

Jim Dine Hearts

For our long overdue visit this week,  

I googled Jim Dine's famous heart paintings 
and found this image on
art projects for kids 
Watercolor over crayon!

 I traced a heart in pencil in the center of
9 x 9 watercolor paper,
then gave each of them a dark crayon to
 cover the pencil line by "scribbling".
The idea was to then use different colored crayons
to fill in the shape and a watercolor wash to add "texture".

Here's what happened.

She'd lightly crayoned the inside of the heart with soft warm pastel colors.  

Then washed on the blue paint! 

Wow! 

OK. I helped Barbara with most of this. 

I finally got her to cover the green crayon with paint on the upper right,

(and was thrilled when I put her name on it.)  

Love this one! 

This was her second one. 

I told her to just "let go and get crazy! "

Winston worked very quietly and diligently on this the whole session. 

I have come to the realization that
we will never know how or why
painting may affect these patients.
The thing I DO know is,
something magical happens when they put a paint brush in their hand!

Note: 

While researching this topic I found this 

wonderful you tube video of heart paintings.

Enjoy! 

An Amazing Sighting!

My husband and I like to go to a local restaurant,

PJ's Country House  

on Thursday nights to hear 

Wilson and John Brown -The Brother's Duo. 

They are such great guys and it can be so much fun. 

Very audience interactive. Average age: 73 

Last night two sons (and an assistant) 

were there with their Mom 

who was living at an Alzheimer facility nearby. 

She was all dressed up, 

knew every word to every song

 and danced her heart out. 

It was incredibly joyous! 

Miracles can happen through art. 

Collaging

There is surprisingly very little information out there about 

art projects for Alzheimer patients.

In the few sources I have found,

collaging is mentioned as an activity that they enjoy. 

We cut small holiday related pictures and words 

out of magazines and old holiday cards,

and had them pick their favorites to glue on heavy paper. 

Pat clearly loves little kids! 

We punched a hole in the top and added a ribbon 

so they could hang them on their door knobs. 

Evelyn told me she already decorated her room.

Then wrote,"smell the pine" on her card. 

Must have fun! 

Love that. 

Now this gal has her priorities straight! 

As you can imagine, 

the holidays are a very difficult time for these patients and their families. 

This may not do much to alleviate that 

but they all seemed to enjoy the project. 

I send many warm thoughts and prayers to 

everyone out there who may be dealing with this 

devastating disease.