Summer Daze

It was such beautiful day today, 

most of our "regulars" were outside when we arrived. 

The few that came to the class were a happy and quiet group.

Pat enjoys this so much and sits quietly the whole time 

just plugging away.

Janet just likes to do her own thing. 

And she talks the whole time! 

Josephine happily likes to just scrub the paint around. 

Another one from Pat.

Barbara hasn't come to the class in a long time, 

and she was very excited about this.

The "face" was an accident? 

Judith and I are taking the month of August off 

and will be back in September. 

Meanwhile, if anyone out there has any ideas 

about painting projects that may work for this class,

please feel free to e-mail me! 

saltydogstudio@comcast.net 

Thanks! 

Tough Going with Still Lives

This week, we thought we'd try painting "from life" again. 

Judith brought in 10 small vases 

filled with colorful flowers from her garden. 

We had to draw some guide lines for most of them,  

except this woman. 

She is deaf and smiles the whole time she paints. 

Look how she added the tiny holes in the "vase"! 

  (She did this totally on her own) 

Peg didn't believe she did this. 

Ten minutes after she did it. 

As eager as they are to come to this class,

 the idea of "painting" eludes most of them. 

They all have such unique personalities and needs, 

no matter what we come up with,

it works for some and not so much for others. 

This was a stretch for most of them. 

NOTE: 

I'm excited about the Alzheimers breakthrough in the news today! 

FIREWORKS

We thought we needed to change things up a bit today.

With July 4th around the corner, 

we talked about fireworks and showed them some images. 

We gave them black paper and 6 different colors of chalk and off they went!  

They were so enthusiastic and the work shows! 

Ironically, a half hour in to the class, the fire alarm went off!

We had to move all 15 patients down the hall 

to be behind fire doors.

 I was a bit panicked, but the staff was very cool. 

In the hallway the alarm was so loud, no one could speak. 

Many of them just held hands instead! 

I'm amazed. 

 

(Five minutes later, we all went back to "work" 

with a bit of happy chaos. 

Dessert was served and we all laughed about the 

FIRE alarm going off while we were painting FIRE works.)

Happy Birthday America! 

Last week I brought in these images 

of abstract impressionist paintings by Irma Cerese. 

I talked about the way she uses color and big shapes 

and that she doesn't concern herself with portraying an actual subject. 

 The patients were a bit agitated when I first got there,

but then settled right down to work. 

 We drew in some of the big shapes for them 

and encouraged them to "blend" some colors. 

Josephine just let's herself go and plays with the paint! 

Sweet Eleanor works very hard at staying in those lines! 

Mary Lou told us that she was going to stand in that window 

and slide down that shoot and land under the tree. 

Here are some more: 

                                      

All in all, the patients are becoming more comfortable 

with the idea of putting the paint on the paper. 

I think they enjoy looking at the images we bring in

and I feel good that they are seeing "real art"! 

Abstract Expressionism project

Last week Judith emailed me images of work by Jean Jacques Duval,

a contemporary stained glass designer and abstract expressionist painter.
We both thought his paintings could be inspiring in some way. 

We brought in various colored pieces of construction paper,
and had them tear random shapes, glue them on the paper,
then outline them with black magic marker.
After a slow start and considerable "prodding",
here are some of the wonderful results.

I am blown away by these. 

There is something so free and expressive about them.

They are starting to let go! 

At one point, the staff gave everyone a small cup of strawberry smoothie.

Bob cleverly used his smoothie as glue!

Hey. It works!   

Yesterday I was a "visiting artist" at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury.

My friend Sally hosts a dozen Alzheimer patients there every Thursday 

so together we presented the Aboriginal paintings idea to them. 

That's cute Sally n the back ground

These folks have "early stage" and were  

able to draw their own shapes. 

They got a big kick out of this.

A lot of smiles and happy colors going on here. 

The man at the top there never got to the paint.

He just kept drawing the whole time. 

This man gave up on the pen and just used paint. 

I told Bill this looked like an landscape plan.

Lots of trees. 

The act of gathering together around a table to create something,

is so soothing and a wonderful way to communicate. 

Making Progress!

I am very excited about our session today.

We showed the patients samples of Aboriginal Art

and talked about the different patterns they use.

We drew some shapes for them to get them started. 

 Right off the bat, Janet got into coloring in my sample.

She then did this all by herself.

(The bottom part is a caterpillar 

and the top part is her hand)  

We showed them samples like these

focussing on the use of circels  and dots! .

Then drew some simple shapes for them to get started. 

Winston quietly worked on this the whole hour. 

(I drew the shapes and put in the red dots for her) 

At one point, she picked up the marker and outlined those new shapes. 

I love the very small circle in the right corner! 

More incredible work:

This was very brave of Edna

and she was very pleased with it.

"Well. Red is my favorite color." 

Barbara loved that Aboriginal Artists use

 lots of circles and dots.

Look at all the colors she used. 

After that, she did this on her own.  

She laughed out loud when I told her it looked like goldfish! 

  

Peg had no idea what she was doing or why, 

but she loved every minute of painting this! 

Gerty got the whole circle idea and did this 

on her own, chuckling the whole time! 

I gave her a new marker to continue 

but she declined. 

She liked it that way. 

Mary Lou always frets at first.

Then ends up doing amazing things like this. 

Eleanor colored in all the outside shapes I drew for her. 

Except the one she colored in the inside. 

Peggy stayed until the very end to finish this. 

I am thrilled. 

The patients now look forward to coming to this class,

and they are enjoying it on so many levels! 

They feel less threatened by "doing art" 

and are really starting to "let go". 

Moving up to the area where they live

 has made a huge difference. 

It's more intimate and relaxing. 

Within fifteen minutes today, we had twelve patients 

happily painting away.  

That's progress! 

I believe strongly that having them look and think about  

actual art 

helps stimulate them.