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.

Abstract Simple Florals

For our class today,

we printed a few images of paintings by 

my friend Lisa Daria Kennedy.

Her wonderful simple abstract florals have big shapes
in great colors that the patients loved looking at! 

I drew in some of those shapes for some of them to color in. 

I think we are making progress here.

Most of them come in and get right to work now

and (I think) they are beginning to "let go" a little. 

 

Mary Lou is the one that comes in protesting 

and ends up doing things like this! 

This gal drew the lines herself.

And these are just few of  the pieces they did. 

As they are getting more comfortable with the materials,

 they are starting to use a lot more color! 

Thank you Lisa for letting us use your images and

as always, my friend and idea person,  Judith! 

Spring Comes to the 3rd floor!

Today Judith and I brought in daffodils and forsythia

 and set them up in small vases on colored cloth. 

We showed images of paintings of those flowers and 

then drew quick outlines to get them started. 

They all dug right in with only a little 

"I can't do this"or 

"I don't know what I am doing"!!  

Barbara got right in to the yellow and couldn't stop. 

Louise was new today and such a pleasure! 

I hope she keeps coming! 

Frances is another one who really enjoys this class. 

I have been away so we haven't had the class 

in over three weeks.

I was worried that we might 

lose some of the "momentum".

Then Peggy asked me when I was going to be away.

So I guess it doesn't matter.    

Ray snuck in at the end of class 

"with no intention of doing anything!

I'm just going to watch."

Well, then look at this! 

They were all very relaxed today and cheerful.

When I walked in Ann was giving some of them manicures. 

At one point, a friend of one of the gals came in 

and played the harmonica.

After everyone had done their painting, 

I brought in Cello, my 5 month old lab puppy

and that just made the day!  

Sorry the images on this blog are so dark. 

Thank god for I Phones. 

I won't even go into my camera issues of late. 

  

Painting Fun

Judith came up with the idea of using some images of Sally Dean's 

fabulous and fun paintings for the patients to paint from. 

We chose these four. 

 

We drew in some of those big lovely shapes 

in pencil for them to color in.  

The colors and shapes in these paintings made them happier 

than I have ever seen them.  

Here is some of their work. 

Lorraine is a watercolor painter and just loves this class. 

And we love having her! 

When I showed Eleanor Sally's paintings, she said to me 

"Can you imagine anything more wonderful than to be able to do that? " 

Edna worried about every move she made doing this, 

but was so pleased with the results! 

It's "trees in the Fall". 

Fran just gets totally absorbed while doing her paintings. 

And that just makes my day! 

Look how she blended those colors.

Janet is very social and talks the whole time she works. 

Half way through, she told me she would rather paint alone 

so she "could think about what she was doing".

I just LOVE this! 

Barbara was having a "bad day" until I saw her 

in the hallway on my way in 

and told her we were going to be painting! 

I'm so glad she came.

Winston is just so sweet and such a hard worker. 

And this painting is so "her". 

 I feel so blessed to have this opportunity 

to work with these wonderful people. 

I wish you could see the joy on their faces when they are working! 

 Thank you Sally for providing us with 

such wonderful reference material. 

We all love your work! 

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.