Aged Care Resident Reignites Passion for Painting

Reigniting hobbies and passions are always encouraged at Regis Aged Care. For Regis Port Stephens resident and artist Graham King, who hasn’t painted in years, picking up the paintbrush again was cathartic. After his Home went into lockdown at the start of this year, Graham, 91, identified an opportunity to get stuck back into his passion.

Regis Port Stephens General Manager, Jill de la Lande, purchased a set of canvases, brushes, and paint for Graham, who wasted no time in letting his imagination run wild. To date, he has produced over 20 beautiful artworks and is showing no signs of stopping soon.

Graham and Jill share regular chats over cups of coffee where they discuss art, make plans for purchasing more equipment, and organise the hosting of an art exhibition. Jill says, “he is just so proud of his work. He and his daughter catalogued his paintings recently and found he has more than 152 artworks.”

Graham’s work has also inspired others in the Home to explore their creativity with the successful development of the art room. The space provides residents with an outlet to express themselves artistically and without judgement. Utilising a vast roster of tools, such as watercolours, oils, pencil, ink, and charcoal, residents have crafted delightful postcards, thoughtful gift cards, and even epic large paintings.

Speaking of the impact that the art room has made to Regis Port Stephens, Graham says, “Regis has been very helpful providing this room for me and other residents. I do a bit of tutoring for people who’ve never painted but would loved to have done it, so that was a great opportunity for me to start to help them paint.”

I like to think that we should do something in life to help, to extend our lives, to make it more interesting in our age. It does help.”

Recently, Graham gifted two of his extraordinary artworks to Linda Mellors, Regis Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. The artworks sit proudly on display in Linda’s office, where employees continually admire them as an inspiring reminder of our residents’ brilliant skills and achievements.

Linda recently stopped by Regis Port Stephens to pay a visit to Graham and thank him for his fantastic artistic gifts. The two shared a tremendous afternoon full of insightful discussions as Graham, and other residents enthusiastically shared their proud artworks.

Linda was thrilled to have the opportunity to see firsthand the tremendous impact that Graham and the art room have made to the creativity of residents in the Home. As Graham says, “Everyone’s got a gift, and they should be using it. Mine is painting. Paint and enjoy yourself.”

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