A Day In The Life of Creative Minds Artist: Laura Novak

06/25/2019

When did you join Creative Minds?
October 2018

What attracted you most to the franchise opportunity?
The opportunity to combine my love for helping people with my love for art, all in the time my children would be at school.

Tell us what you’ve been up to today…
Today I have been running my Mini Makers art session at the Whale of a Time Soft Play in Bar Hill, Cambridgeshire. They have a perfect party room that runs along side the soft play, decorated with a fun mural. The children can come to me and go crazy with all my art materials, having lots of fun and parents don’t need to do any tidying up! I always set up paints, stickers, pastels and bring a various amount of tools to paint with. The most popular being wheels to roll with, mixed with glitter! Each week I will also bring new ideas and mediums to experiment with.

I absolutely love drawing animations so I often ask the little ones who their favourite character is and we draw it together, they can then experiment with different mediums to finish off their artwork! I encourage mixing up the colours, playing around with lots of mediums and just generally having lots of fun!

How do you fit work around your two young boys and busy family life?
Being a Creative Minds Artist fits really well around family life. I am still able to do every school run, which I want to do while my children are young. Being mummy is and will always be my most important role in life. I plan my art sessions in advance and prepare anything that needs doing before the session either in the evening or a day I’ll have at home for administration and playing with my equipment.

What inspires the themes that you run in your art sessions?
It could be the time of year with what season it is, or if it’s Christmas etc. We have a wonderful Creative Minds network, where the artists share their art sessions and ideas. This is very inspiring. I also ask the participants if there is anything they would like to try in the next session.

What do you like best about being a Creative Minds Artist?
Seeing the joy and happiness on participant’s faces during an art session. It’s the most rewarding feeling in the world!

Read ‘Day in the Life of Creative Minds Artist: Sarah Bryant’ here: http://159.65.94.31/creative-minds-artist-sarah-bryant/

Beautiful acrylic paintings by a talented resident artist!

05/31/2017

As CM Artists we’re always discovering talented artists among the many participants we deliver sessions to on a daily basis. We’re often surprised by the skill, the detail, the experimentation and the creativity we see from the participants in our sessions but the artwork that we have seen created by Ian, a resident artist at Sunrise of Weybridge left us stunned!

Since attending the art sessions Ian has created two beautiful acrylic paintings on mdf, one of Littlehampton and one of Burano, a Venetian lagoon in Italy.

Ian tells us:

“My interest in drawing and painting started when Sunrise Weybridge formed an art class/group, some five years ago. Although I have no formal art training I have found art enjoyable, satisfying and sometimes frustrating as I suffer from being colour blind and in a wheelchair.”

“With help from the Sunrise Activities team and Sara Hurley’s (Creative Minds) art classes over the past few years I have painted two acrylic paintings.

“The first of these paintings was based on a photograph that was chosen as the vibrant colours complimented the colours of two other paintings/pictures which are to be hung, along with my painting, on a wall in a recently purchased retirement flat by a member of the Sunrise Weybridge activities team who had asked me to paint the Littlehampton water front scene for her.”

Here is the first of Ian’s paintings of Littlehampton, with work in progress photo’s taken at each stage of painting…

“The second painting, of Burano Island, in the Venetian Lagoon, Italy, was chosen by a member of the Sunrise Weybridge activities team, as the vibrant colours of the boats and houses in the scene, matched those used in the kitchen of her home.”

We feel so privileged to see such talent in the care homes and other venues we visit!

Many thanks to Ian, a truely talented resident artist, for sharing the progress of his paintings with us and thanks for reading.

Joyce Shares Her Artist Story

04/19/2017

We encounter so many residents with incredible life stories like 97 year old Joyce Cheverton, a resident at Nightingale Hall Care Home in Richmond, North Yorkshire. She’s an inspirational artist and is still creating wonderful artwork today! Here’s Joyce’s artist story including photos of her artwork.

Born in Harrow in 1920, Joyce showed remarkable artistic talent from an early age, producing saleable oil paintings while still at primary school. She studied for three years at Harrow College of Art and stayed for a further year as a tutor.

During the war years she taught art at the girls convent school in Willesden. When the sirens went she took her class to Willesden underground station which served as an air raid shelter. Joyce’s shelter sketches are some of her most poignant works.

Joyce met and later married David Cheverton, a young RAF officer, in a class of RAF officers she was instructing in the art of camouflage. David became an architect after the war and later a vicar. Joyce supported his ministry with her art.

Throughout her life Joyce was prolific in many forms of art – oils, water colours, posters, engravings, Lino cuts, wood block printing from blocks she carved herself, book illustration and cover design. She painted a huge four wall mural for a London cafe and designed a lounge for a Cunard liner. David and Joyce retired to a bungalow he designed in Preston-under-Scar. Their son Mark and his wife Lottie founded an Art College in Leith which flourishes to this day.

Here are photo’s of Joyce’s art over the years, her artist story…

Lesley (our CM Artist based in Middlesbrough) commented…”I am always amazed at the beautiful art that the residents at Nightingale Hall Care Home produce. Every session is individual and inspiring; not only do the artists excel but those who have never painted before have a breakthrough in something new and lasting.”

“The residents have already created beautiful soft pastel birds, abstract watercolour Kandinsky Circles, acrylic cherry blossom trees. Last week we used an intense pigment called Brusho and made some stunning bunny bunting to hang across the fireplace. I look forward to many more special moments at Nightingale Hall.”

We look forward to seeing more wonderful artwork created by Joyce and the residents in their Art Sessions. You can see some of the artwork Lesley mentions on our facebook page www.facebook.com/creativemindsan

Thank you for reading, we hope to inspire you with many more resident artist stories!

Nightingale Hall Care Home is owned by Wellburn Care Homes, see their website for more details: www.wellburncare.co.uk/