My husband is back home from his time to work in Honduras (YEA!), so we are getting back to whatever we consider to be normal around here. This afternoon I will go paint with the Alzheimer's patients. I have been taking a lot of pictures from magazines for them to paint from, and they all always seem to choose the pictures from Birds & Blooms magazine. I think it's because the bird photos are not cluttered, and are large, colorful, and easy to see.
And they have been doing some terrific bird paintings! Last time, one of the ladies chose to paint a tropical bird of some kind, a very gaudy and colorful bird. I told her I too thought it was a beautiful bird, but I had never seen one like it in Colorado. She looked at me like I was an idiot, and said, "Well, it's just an everyday blackbird!" and went on to paint it. No black at all in the bird; that was the one color it didn't have.
But we are getting quite an assortment of bird paintings. So this morning, I have been searching my magazines to find other images that will tempt them, and maybe help to renew a memory or two. I took the above photo to take along, as I think some of them will recall canning fruit, which is a big summer activity here. I am also taking a collection of my seashells.
One of the things that is wonderful about painting with these sweet older people is the stories that come out of them; some true bits of their past and some complete fiction (though they are so true to them, that I do not know it is fiction until a family or staff member tells me.) The paintings they do are joyful and colorful, like paintings children do. They just rediscover the fun of painting for a bit of time. And that is a Good Thing.
