The transformative power of art

 

Randwick resident Audrey has spent her life making the world more colourful through her creativity and artistry. Over the years she has studied and practiced many different mediums, including pottery, crochet, floristry, cake making and decorating, and painting.

 

Encouraged by Visual Arts Coordinator, Ruth, Audrey can spend hours, days at a time in the Montefiore Art Room, absorbed in the process of bringing the image in her mind to life on canvas.

 

“I feel sort of transported as I paint,” she says. “I feel that I’m in it. I belong to that painting. I give myself to it.”

 

Audrey first picked up a paintbrush 14 years ago, encouraged by an artist friend to visit an art studio and take lessons. She credits Watsons Bay-based artist Eileen Rogoff, from the the Rogoff Art School, who she says “…encouraged me all along and helped me to bring out my own talent and find what I could do with it.”

 

Today, her work can be seen in paintings on the walls of Montefiore and in the homes of family and friends. Her crocheted creations line her bed as blankets and walk the streets in the form of clothing her grandchildren wear. Her connection with her family is paramount, and one of her proudest moments was having her artwork display in the Moriah College intergenerational art exhibition whilst some of her grandchildren were students at the school.

 

 

Audrey’s eye for detail and design is apparent in the often complex and challenging images she chooses to paint.

 

“She’d say, I think I’m going to paint this…and I’d think to myself, this is challenging, but if anybody can do it, Audrey could do it,” says Ruth. “With Audrey’s determination, her focus and her creative way she sees things and her sense of design and style and her expressive brush strokes, she was able to turn these things out like you wouldn’t know which was the original.”

 

Art is just one of the many Creative Therapy activity options available to residents at Montefiore. Team members like Ruth encourage residents of all different backgrounds and levels of experience to express themselves through drawing and painting. Not only is it a way to socialise and engage with other residents, but painting helps with dexterity, fine motor skills, and coordination as well as being mentally stimulating, supporting improved memory and cognitive function.

 

 

“Ruth uplifts me and makes me feel I can do it,” says Audrey. “She doesn’t show me how to hold the brush, but rather she encourages me. That’s what she does – it’s amazing.”

 

For her next painting, Audrey plans to create a work featuring Japanese cherry blossoms at the request of her granddaughter. We can’t wait to see this wonderful work come to life.