19th December 2019

Members of Pewsey Art Group spent the autumn term documenting their lives in drawings, painting and collage.

Artist Belinda Chandler led the project to create memory books, with pages devoted to special moments, favourite poems, recipes, and anything they wanted to feature. The project ended with a special Christmas session when everyone shared their work and wrote messages of support and friendship in each other's books.  

Group member Jerry Rider said: “This has been a splendid project, we have enjoyed it immensely. Belinda really thinks outside the box and gets us to work in different ways. It is tremendous.”

Jerry’s wife Carol said: “Jerry has always been able to draw but did not have the time. When he retired he joined several art groups. We both love coming to this one.

 “We take the art home and in the conservatory we have a big display of many years’ work. We do different types of things and it really stretches us. Some projects Jerry says ‘I can’t do that,’ but he absolutely loves it at the end.  Jerry cannot see people’s faces so well now but as a farmer he relates to the animals. He sees animal faces better than humans so he draws a lot of animals.

You notice the change in people

 “This is such a lovely group. You notice how people come out of their shell. They might come in nervously and not say very much but it is so relaxed and you do notice people change which is lovely.”

Art group volunteer Isabella Rose said: “I thought it was really inspiring watching the people who had created their memory books talking about it with such confidence. You can see how people benefit so much from taking part. It is a really good group and I’m so happy to be a part of it.”

  

Alzheimer's Support art groups in Wiltshire