Ready, set, draw – Kingston Vale care home residents take part in worldwide art festival

Home news

Nov 10, 2020

Residents at a care home in Kingston Vale picked up their pencils and went back to the drawing board for The Big Draw Festival 2020.

Care UK’s Sherwood Grange, on Robin Hood Lane, celebrated all things arty by teaming up with pupils at Robin Hood Primary School to create a climate change themed piece of artwork.

Sherwood Grange residents designed ‘zentangles’, a type of pattern, and used these to reflect the life and environments of animals that are endangered or extinct. Residents enjoyed researching the different creatures to gain inspiration for their drawings. Sharing their designs with the local school,  pupils then coloured the patterns in, and created a collage for the residents. The finished piece of art is now on display the care home’s window.

The care home also participated in an exclusive live drawing session, hosted by illustrator and Big Draw Ambassador Gary Andrews. Gary shared his tried and tested drawing techniques virtually, and showed residents how to draw some of the world’s endangered animals, including sea turtles, tigers and puffins.

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, the month-long Big Draw Festival promotes drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. ‘A Climate of Change’, this year’s theme, focuses on the relationship between people and their environment, and offers a great opportunity for older people to reminisce about their favourite nature spots, as well as trips to the great outdoors in their younger years, and how our focus looking after our planet has changed in recent years. 

Rick Mayne, Home Manager at Sherwood Grange, said: “The Big Draw was a huge success, and we were delighted to be able to partner with Robin Hood Primary School for this year’s celebrations.

“Although current circumstances mean we were unable to welcome our friends at Robin Hood Primary School into into Sherwood Grange we wanted to connect with them virtually and do something positive, and The Big Draw offered the perfect chance for us to do just that.

“We’re looking forward to showcasing our new artwork in the home and on social media for the people of Kingston Vale to see.”

After a successful participation in the Big Draw Festival last year, Care UK renewed its partnership in 2020, becoming the main health and social care partner and leading the way in changing perceptions of life in a care home by promoting activity-based care and encouraging other care homes to follow suit. Across the country, more than 70 homes have been getting arty and working with their local communities virtually to create works of art around the theme ‘A Climate of Change’.

Sherwood Grange is a state-of-the-art care home which provides full-time residential and dementia care, as well as short-term respite care. Designed to enable residents to live enjoyable and fulfilling lives, the care home has its very own cinema and hair salon, and there is plenty of space, both indoors and out, for relaxation and recreation.

To find out more about Sherwood Grange please contact Tracey Fountain, Customer Relations Manager, at tracey.fountain@careuk.com or call 020 4502 8956.

To find out more about Care UK’s partnership with the Big Draw, and for more top tips on how you and your loved ones can get involved at home, visit careuk.com/care-homes/bigdraw

To find out more about the Big Draw festival, please go to thebigdraw.org