For an hour on Monday and Wednesdays through October I held drawing sessions in the activities lounge at Sunrise Senior Living care home in Beaconsfield.
On the first week I took along cartridge paper, pastels, pencils and felt tip pens. I was originally hoping to draw some self portraits with the residents helping some of them by drawing templates.
After the first couple of sessions it was quite clear that this was too structured for the group.
I began to take in more art books, illustrated children’s books and books of plants and landscapes for them to look at.
Many of the group took to copying pictures from the books, they were also useful for conversations which helped to pin point what subject matter interested people individually. From this point onward the whole group could become involved in The Big Draw.
The activities were supported by the staff at the care home. They were on hand should I have needed any help and also when some of the more advanced sufferers of Alzheimer’s attended they could give them one to one support by helping them draw or looking at books with them.
The drawing activities have also been supported by the staff at Beaconsfield library who were willing to let us share the work with the public.
The Big Draw was interesting for the residents of Sunrise because it allowed them to explore drawing and images. They were free to choose what they wanted to draw which produced an un-themed variety of work. Because there were not any restrictions within the sessions to subject matter my participants were able to connect to their own creativity.
The Big Draw was interesting for the community in Beaconsfield because they could see the results of the work that was produced in the display at the library.
It was interesting for me because I had never worked with people with memory loss. It was like starting all-over-again every time we began a new session because many of them had forgotten that they had done it before or forgotten that they had met me.
For some of the participants it was difficult to take part in drawing, I think this was because they thought that too much was expected of them. Sometimes the stigma of being told that you cannot draw when you are young stays with you even if you are elderly and have a memory destroying disease.
Once they got involved in mark-making they became absorbed in the activity.
I have learned that communication and conversation are an important part of the drawing process when coaxing reluctant people into the act of drawing.
Because of this I have learned not to have too many preconceptions of the subject matter to be drawn and to be flexible. Sometimes drawing projects have to evolve rather than being set in stone.
