August 20th, 2015
“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”
– Napoleon Hill
When one of our Residents recently came to us with a request to paint, he had no idea what we had in store for him. Melvin was hoping to express himself through a painting on a piece of paper, with maybe some watercolors, at the dining room table. But Melvin got so much more.
Our Colleague Paul, who often works one-on-one with Melvin, and is an artist himself, set out to give Melvin a memorable day of painting, an experience he’ll remember forever, some WOW! Magic at its finest.
Melvin has a limited range of motion in his reach and would have a hard time painting with a standard paint brush. But that would not stop him. Paul set out to create a custom set of paintbrushes that would allow Melvin to reach the canvas with ease. He also wanted to give Melvin a variety of textures to use.
Paul collected sticks, twigs, pine needles, and leaves from the yard. Then one-by-one, he cut the leaves, gathered the pine needles, and taped them to the ends of the sticks. These gave Melvin long paintbrushes with varied textures, which gave him the freedom to express himself through art, and a chance to develop his fine motor skills.
Paul attached a large canvas to a tree and the two spent the afternoon outdoors, painting en plein air.
“The process spanned 4 hours of drying and painting time, Melvin was fully engaged the entire time,” said Paul.
The end result was a Pollock-inspired masterpiece. Melvin’s painting was artistic perfection. But, even better, Melvin was left with a memorable and rewarding experience that Paul was proud to be a part of.
“In the end I just wanted Melvin to be able to express himself with the added bonus of him having a nice piece of art,” said Paul.
Check out the custom paintbrushes, the artwork, and the process below.
Try your own hand at a Pollock-style painting here.
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