Sharmone the artist!

I have worked at Springfield Care Home in Garforth for 2 years and there have been a wide range of residents participating in art club, but there is one stalwart resident called Sharmone who comes every time and sits and draws wonderful things.

She loves to draw people from ancient Egypt and she spends hours drawing until she considers its ‘perfect’.  I love this because she basically decides when its done, she never asks me what I think, and she is very disciplined. Thats not to say she isn’t sometimes unsure about her art. One time, she met a crossroads in the process, she kept saying ‘I don’t want to ruin it’ so, we had a discussion about how as artists we make copies of our work so we can experiment so we don’t ruin the original, she didn’t grasp the concept. When I presented multiple copies of her painting to experiment on, she kept shuffling through them, not knowing which one was the original. I had made a mistake, multiple copies was confusing and its wasn't what she needed. But then when I showed her which one was the original, she picked up a pen, coloured some areas in and declared ‘its finished’.

The first drawing she started was Tutankhamen two years ago, and she has just finished him this July. She did do other work in-between when she needed a change. She did a drawing of Egyptian pharaoh Tawosret, it also took her a very long time. She uses a ruler to follow the lines in the details and she does a lot of looking at her resources material and she is very particular about colours.

He deserved a gold frame!

When she finishes her picture, I frame them for her room. She would enjoy being an architect or something like that, as she has a strong eye for detail and insists on things being right. I’m very lucky to work with her,