mecwacare’s Artist in Residence - June Alderslade

June Alderslade, 95, has been a resident at mecwacare Park Hill in Mornington since April 2015. She started drawing and painting at the age of 10 and has continued her passion throughout her life without any formal art tuition.

In her younger years, June worked as a mechanical tracer where she professionally sketched mechanical parts by hand. It was in this role that she learnt the technique of realism drawing. June believes her days as a tracer taught her how to draw to scale and “just get it right”, no matter how long it took. June has always loved drawing and painting.

She spends time every day at the home creating new pieces, firstly using a mapping pen and then a fine point pen for the detail. When June’s children grew up, she continued to paint using watercolour. Initially, she was drawn to painting flowers, still life and portraits. Since moving into Park Hill, she has been painting animals – and the quality of her work has blown everyone away.

June paints and draws most days, and her first collaborative public display was as part of the home’s “Expressions Exhibition” at the Oak Hill Gallery in Mornington. June is looking forward to finishing her latest painting of an emu and would like to be part of more exhibitions at the gallery. She is very modest about her work, but happy to share them for the enjoyment of others.

June’s daughter Merren said that when she was a child there was always a painting “on the go” on the dining room table. June would copy a greeting card or photograph and then trace and enlarge the image onto watercolour paper. Each day she would do a bit more and sometimes months would go by before she completed it. But no matter how long it took, there was always one guarantee – the piece would look exactly like the original.

mecwacare is a leading not-for-profit, non-denominational charitable organisation with a reputation for excellence. It has provided care in the community for more than 60 years, offering residential aged care, home care packages, respite care, home care and support, community housing, community programs, disability services and nursing services.

mecwacare supports more than 16,500 people each week through a highly integrated service network operated by more than 2,000 employees and 510 volunteers. Staff are culturally and linguistically diverse, representing 89 nationalities and speaking 98 languages to meet the needs of their clients.

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Pictured: mecwacare Park Hill resident, June Alderslade, with one of her stunning drawings