"Arts to Remember"

Today was my last day creating art with residents at various assisted living centers in Olympia as part of the "Arts to Remember" program. Selected art pieces will be on display at the annual Arts Walk in downtown Olympia October 7th and 8th.

This year I went to two locations, Merrill Gardens and Olympia West. We created mandalas and several different still lifes in craypas and watercolor. The challenge was to relate that everyone can do art and that the art does not need to be realistic. I even got to a point where I "outlawed" any negative talk about one's art creation. But, that was short lived.

Today, I brought a bouquet of strawflowers from my garden. First time I have grown them and what amazing plants. The shape of the leaves and flatness of the stems are as as unique as the flowers themselves.



Here is a close up view of the strawflowers



The bouquet that became the subject matter of today's session.


Closer view



I attempted to explain that we would be doing an Impressionistic version of this bouquet; my demonstration....


Anyways, they said that they had fun!