Highgate care home residents showcase works of art at local exhibition

Residents at The Highgate Bupa Care Home have been showing off their creative skills as the home hosted an art exhibition, inviting the local community, family and friends to marvel at their creations.

The event was facilitated by Gretchen Wheeler, Interim Home Manager, with the help of local Art Therapist, Sadia Abdullah who said the main driver for the event was to boost mental wellbeing for the residents.

However, once Gretchen, Interim Home Manager, saw the artwork produced, she realised it was the perfect opportunity to encourage visitors into the home and enhance community integration.

Gretchen Wheeler commented: “We truly desire to draw out our residents’ full potential and creative capabilities. Arts and crafts sessions are a simple but effective way of increasing our residents’ mental wellbeing and quality of life – so we wanted their creations to be a way of bringing people together and to provide inspiration for other residents, family and friends.

Gretchen concludes: “We absolutely had to show off their skills and invite the community to join us.”

The arts and crafts sessions were hosted by local Art Therapist Sadia Abdullah. She has been teaching Fine Art for over 14 years, and always loved sharing her passion with residential care homes. The Highgate Bupa Care Home reached out to Sadia to run their creative classes, and she was more than happy to oblige.

Sadia Abdullah commented: “I came to The Highgate Bupa Care Home knowing I would find a plethora of hidden creativity. It’s wonderful to see this creativity come from a resident, no matter their age and stage of their life. It was admirable to see residents, some with disabilities, complete a piece of work with great care, attention and patience. Often a piece of work will allow a resident the sanctity of expression and become a very personal and imaginative journey.”

The mini art exhibition consisted of five residents’ work: Olive Jones, Edmund Marriott, Elisabeth Bryant, Tony Trumbell, and Phyllis Levy.

Olive discovered her love of painting for the first time at the age of 93, with her artwork being inspired by the flowers in her childhood garden in Jamaica.

Olive commented: “We had beautiful flowers in our garden, as did the neighbours. I have wonderful childhood memories of secretly sneaking into their garden and taking a cutting of their flowers to plant it on our side.”

Edmund, aged 69, lives at The Highgate with a disability in his hands that requires great strength and effort to hold an instrument. However, he did not let that stop him from expressing himself with jumbo grip crayons, which enabled him to create colourful optical illusions. Edmund loves to work with colour, as it would help him recall happy times spent in Whittington Park, North London.

Edmund commented: “I used to love drawing in the park. My art is inspired by Modernist artists such as Wassily Kandinsky where concentric circles were thought of as a symbol of progress and renewal.”

Elisabeth, aged 54 and fellow resident at The Highgate, is a caring mother and has a passion for nature. Her aim was to capture her maternal character in outdoor landscape scenes. She learned to hold a paintbrush with her non-dominant hand to produce her artwork.

Elisabeth commented: “I wanted to focus on fine details, despite only being able to hold my brush in a limited fashion. This allowed me to create imaginative work to reflect my love and protective feelings for my children which I hold dear.”

Meanwhile, Phyllis, aged 89, goes affectionately by the name Felice to her friends and family. She has a long-standing history with art, as it was her favourite subject at school. Latterly, Felice left school aged 15 and followed a creative route designing women’s clothing. Later in life, she taught art and took part in exhibitions, selling many works in her lifetime. After trying art therapy following an accident, she found switching off from her conscious mind allowed her to paint freely.

Phyllis commented: “How amazing to have reached this age and have the skills that I have learned over many years still be appreciated. I am so happy to have my work on display and hope it brings happiness to everyone.”

Finally, Tony, aged 59, has an extensive history of technology and arts and crafts, as he used to design and produce spectacle frames. Since being at The Highgate he has taught himself many new crafts, such as card making, crocheting, tatting - a method of using thread and tools to create intricate knotwork, and paper construction through 3D printing. His many long-term crafts include rug making and loom knitting.

Tony commented: “I like the simple flowing shapes which build up a more complex design. This is why I decided to create mandalas and biomorphic forms for our art exhibition.”

The residents’ artwork was proudly displayed in the lounge at The Highgate Bupa Care Home, where family and friends were able to view and some were able to take loved one’s creations home to cherish.