A Little Painting Goes A Long Way

I haven't done a lot of art lately but I still work with my seniors at the nursing home on Wednesdays and I try to come up with simple art projects that I feel they can do and may find enjoyable. This was one that prooved to be good. I found some 5" x 7" brass photo frames at a really discounted price and decided that I could teach the gals how to paint their own work of art to put into the frames.

This is the sample I used for them to follow.

We started with a blank piece of watercolor paper cut to size. Next I had them paint a thin coat of acrylic green and blue on the paper. Once that had dried they used a combination of rubber stamps to create this picture, or something close to it. When the ink dried as best it could (some were a little heavy handed with the ink :-) ) we used colored pencils to fill in the picture.

I was very impressed with the results and so were they. They couldn't believe they had actually painted a picture of their very own, and they really liked that their art was framed and ready to stand up in their rooms. Of course I had them sign their work, saying that artists always sign their work!

Some days I don't feel like my efforts are improving their lives at all and other days I feel like I've really accomplished something good. This one of those good days. There was a fourth painting but the lady had packed hers up and left by the time I got out my camera.

P.S. The painting on the left was made by a woman who never speaks. She always comes to class and usually does pretty well at following directions. Today I was quite taken with her painting and I told her so. I was rewarded with a big smile.