Getting Artsy With The Residents

"In the Zone"

Once a month my sister Renee and I go to the local nursing home and do something artsy crafty with the residents.  This week I took two tubs of my framed art and did show and tell.  Then I told them that one of the ways artists learn new things is to copy a painting from an old master.  So I showed them a painting by Van Gogh of sunflowers and talked a little bit about his life.  Then we dropped the bomb on the residents by telling them we would like them to try and copy his painting.  Well, we had to take some of them kicking and screaming to the tables ( not really, but they did resist) and let them have a go with some acrylics.  After just a few minutes the room became very quiet.  They were "in the zone".  Even two of the staff joined in and painted.

We then took the paintings to Renee's and scanned them.  Then took the file to Walgreen's who are having a buy 25 get 25 free sale.  So we bought 50 / 4 X 6 photos for under $5.00.  We then took them home and glued them to the front of greeting cards that we got 1/2 off at Michael's.  (Can you tell I like to use coupons?).  So we ended up with 50 greeting cards  for about $10.00 that we made into little packs for the people who participated.  We will take them back next week for a little surprise gift.

Here are a couple of the brilliant masterpieces created that day.

After Van Gogh by Gen

After Van Gogh by Norma C

The only thing better than creating art is sharing that love with others.  AND you are never too young or too old to enjoy creating art.