Claire’s latest visit to Horatio’s Garden Midlands was particularly nice and rewarding, as the patients joining her are now not only familiar with her friendly company, but have also evidently embraced their newfound artistic skills to a point where their works are taking on a unique quality.
Despite only two people having the time to paint this week, plenty of others popped by and chatted, making the session lovely and sociable. With the creative trio remaining together and painting throughout the afternoon, there was certainly a lot to talk about whenever anyone ventured into the garden room!
Mark and Anne were the two people to gather with Claire, both of whom have regularly attended the workshops over the past few weeks.
As some of you may know, Mark began to paint a card bearing a Blue Tit in Claire’s previous session, which he intends to give to the nurse who’s been looking after him to say thank you. This week, he returned to the session, sharing his plan with Claire to paint the back of the card too in order to make it particularly vibrant.
Claire loved his idea, sketching the vague outline of some tulips to get the design started. Mark then built on this, adding spots and other shapes, with the eventual result being one of pure joy!
His woodwork tutor also briefly joined the group, with Mark sharing that together they’d made a slide board that he’d like to decorate when Claire next returns to the garden. The two plan to paint something floral onto the item in acrylic paint soon, with Claire noting that “it’ll be so good that he will have this with him when he goes home.”
Another lady was the other member of this week’s group and she has been enjoying her time with Claire so much that she actually put off a visit from her husband to the following day so that she could attend the whole session! She’s been an immensely positive, encouraging presence amongst her fellow artists, this week choosing to complete two cards, a flower and paint a new work of a robin.
She’s really made the most of engaging with Claire, learning from her each week and perfecting her technique. This week Claire shared some of her top tips regarding wet-on-wet painting, as well as an insight into colour mixing, which was particularly important when it came to capturing the intricacies of her spirited feathered friend!
Whilst she plans to send her flower card to a friend who paints, her robin watercolour will have to wait a few more months before it settles into its new home, as she will be giving it to her grandchild as a rather special Christmas card.
It’s wonderful to see so many people welcoming watercolours into their lives and we hope Claire and everyone in Horatio’s Garden Midlands continues to embrace them for many more weeks to come.
