Out of Sorts

I was told there had been a lot of room changes on the floor 

this morning so the girls were all a bit "out of sorts." 

Thank goodness I'd planned a very "comforting" project for today.

I'd found an article in an American Artist Magazine featuring 

beautiful colorful landscapes by artist Mary Sipp-Green. 

I color xeroxed small images of her paintings for them to look at, 

then outlined the simple shapes in black marker for them. 

All they had to do was color them in any way they wanted.  

This gal calmed right down and got to work 

 

Same picture, different interpretation

Marie told me she was too tired today and didn't want to paint.
Although, once she got started on this, she couldn't stop.
Notice how careful she was to stay in the lines. 

Millie has a some vision problems but she managed this all by  herself.
I love what she did with the "sun" 

  There are four "A" behaviors that Alzheimer patients exhibit.

Anxiousness. Agitation. Aggression. Apathy.

It was heartwarming to watch how "creating" something

helped them calm down and cope a little better, 

even if just for an hour.

Learning as I Go!

I tried something completely different today and learned a lot of "don'ts"! Up to this point, I've only had them paint with watercolors on paper, while "copying"an image from a postcard. (Landscapes, still lives, trees) Today, I gave them each a 6 x 9 piece of white bristol board, various colored construction paper, and glue sticks. The idea was to have them the tear the paper into odd shapes, then glue them on the paper in a pattern or picture to express the idea of spring. It didn't turn out as planned.  

Without a reference to kick them off, they were stymied as to where to start. 

And, the concept of putting odd shapes together to "say" something 

is way too abstract for them 

There was a lot of:

"If my kids saw this, they'd think there was something wrong with me!"

"Why aren't we painting?"

"Now What Do I Do?" 

"Please put this in the trash"

This eager and happy patient, did this all by herself. 

This is what I had hoped would happen!  

I should have given them pictures of gardens! 

This woman hated the "tearing" so much she asked for scissors 

and then came up with this. 

Then she loved it.

Don, who is not a resident there, came in with his wife to sit with her. 

He held her hand and talked to her the whole time 

She was happy to just sit there and watch.  

He made this for her then wrote, 

 "For Ro" above his name. 

LESSONS LEARNED:

Stay with familiar materials.

Give them an idea or an image for direction. 

Stay with concrete identifiable subject matter. 

Don't give them too many options.

Glue sticks are not a good idea 

Also; I'm afraid some of them thought this was a project 

more suited for children and that may have offended them. 

I didn't think of that.  

Thank you to ALL the helpers and volunteers today! 

I needed you! 

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.