Art and Dementia projects

Artistic inspiration for Workshop 6:

Firstly when I began to research famous artists who use pastel for their artworks I came across Edvard Munch and of course Edgar Degas

Then I came across the amazingly vibrant work of Odileon Redon.

Odilon Redon, (born April 20, 1840, Bordeaux, France—died July 6, 1916, Paris), French Symbolist painter, lithographer, and etcher of considerable poetic sensitivity and imagination, whose work developed along two divergent lines. His prints explore haunted, fantastic, often macabre themes and foreshadowed the Surrealist and Dadaist movements. His oils and pastels, chiefly still lives with flowers, won him the admiration of Henri Matisse and other painters as an important colourist.

The image above entitled Flower Clouds by Odilon Redon is the image that I choose to introduce to the clients of Rose Cottage as a source of inspiration for their pastel working. The explosion of not only colour but feeling of energy really resonated with them. I also liked that this image as it is partly representational and partly abstract. This work allowing me to be able to point to the value of abstraction and improvised artistic action in response to an emotion in an art work is something that ‘famous’ artists do, is valid and has an important place in the creation of an artwork.

The second artist that I chose to discuss at the beginning of the sixth workshop is Wolf Kahn. Again being a bit of a lover of colour I was drawn to his vibrant use of colour in his landscape works. His pallate of bright colours is quite unusual and I was also drawn to how he used colours i.e. Pairing yellow’s with purple’s the opposite in the colour spectrum and therefore quite a clashing combination. I use colour similarily in my own practice so coming across this artist during my workshop research was very enjoyable.

Wold Kahn was Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, he immigrated to the United States in 1940. In 1945, he graduated from the High School of Music & Art in New York, after which he spent time in the Navy. Under the GI Bill, he studied with renowned teacher and Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann, later becoming Hofmann’s studio assistant. In 1950, he enrolled in the University of Chicago. He graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

The unique blend of Realism and formal discipline of Color Field painting sets the work of Wolf Kahn apart. Kahn is an artist who embodies a synthesis of artistic traits – the modern abstract training of Hans Hofmann, the palette of Matisse, Rothko’s sweeping bands of color, and the atmospheric qualities of American Impressionism. The fusion of color, spontaneity and representation has produced a rich and expressive body of work.

The image above is of the second artwork that I chose to introduce to the clients in Rose Cottage. They really enjoyed the bright red block of colour in the middle and the yellow at the bottom.

Workshops kindly funded by the Adelaide Health Foundation, Community Health Initiative Scheme 2019

Supported by The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. Special thanks to Alan Carrick, Mary Mooney, Silva Schwer and all the staff, clients and friends of Rose Cottage.