When Drawing Life was established ten years ago by Hastings resident Judy Parkinson, it offered free, regular, artist-led, creative sessions for people living with dementia and their carers.

Now Parkinson is extending the reach of this innovative and successful project to all unpaid carers and those they care for with monthly sessions at Hastings Contemporary beginning on 6 March 2025.

“It became obvious that the carers benefited just as much from Drawing Life sessions as those they care for, and that the sessions were an invaluable social lifeline for people who find themselves isolated due to their myriad responsibilities caring for a loved one,” says Parkinson. “With that in mind we have hatched a new format and extended our offer to people of all ages.” 

The fun, relaxed sessions will take place every first Thursday of the month from 2:30-3:30pm at Hastings Contemporary. Parkinson emphasises that no artistic experience is necessary and that the sessions and all materials are free of charge.

Participants will be encouraged to take inspiration from the work in the gallery and then make some marks and doodles. In fact, Mr Doodle himself, the well-known Kent-based artist, is supporting the project by donating free sweatshirts for participants. 

Each session will be a bit different; the Drawing Life team will suggest a range of artistic methods, catering to diverse interests and abilities, ensuring that everyone can benefit from the transformative power of art.

All materials will be supplied free of charge as will conversation, tea and biscuits. “We know from ten years’ experience that art activities make big differences to peoples’ lives,” says Parkinson. “Many carers have told us that our sessions are social occasions where they form invaluable friendships with other carers and us. Art opens conversations between carers about memories and achievements–childhood, family, careers. Those they care for discover fun ways to express themselves and communicate feelings and memories non-verbally. The quiet concentration we observe every time is a precious sign that stress and anxiety are put aside for a while.”

Drawing Life are very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund, Hastings Contemporary and The Hastings Winkle Club for their support – as well as Mr Doodle. “Come and grab your free sweatshirt!” says Parkinson.

First class on Thursday 6 March, 2:30-3:30pm. To book please contact Judy Parkinson info@drawinglife.org. Let her know if you need help with transport or parking. The Studio, Hastings Contemporary, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings

Audrey, 82, who lives at Hastings Court Care Home on The Ridge, is one of a number of local artists given the chance to display their works as part of Lovehastings.com’s Artshelter project. Her figure of a man drawn in charcoal is on display at the bus stop in Queens Road.

“I can’t believe my work has been chosen!” said Audrey, who’s been a resident at Hastings Court for three years. “This is one time I hope the buses are late so people get more time to look at it!”

Audrey with carer Martine

Prior to lockdown, Audrey took part in regular life drawing classes run by Judy Parkinson from Drawing Life. The classes used real life models and allowed residents, many of whom have dementia, the opportunity to express themselves, to reminisce and to communicate in a different way.

Hastings Court has also been running in-house art classes during lockdown, led by Lifestyles Assistant, Martine Dupuy.

“Art is something that’s really enjoyed by many of our residents,” she said. “It’s such a positive activity that gives them a sense of pride and achievement at the end of the session. It can also be a great tool for communication. We talk about what they’ve created and it can stimulate memories we’ve not heard from them before.

“Although Audrey drew her figure many months ago, it’s still a strong memory for her. Now it’s been chosen for the bus shelter, she’s been telling us how she used to take the bus a lot when she was younger. It was her main method of transport to get around where she grew up in Bromley in Kent. It’s wonderful to see her delight at her drawing being selected.”

Audrey’s daughter, Lesley Cordier, is equally thrilled.

“I am so proud of my mum! Queens Road isn’t somewhere I normally need to go, but I make a detour now just so I can see Mum’s drawing! The staff at Hastings Court have given her so much support and encourage her to do things she hasn’t done before.”

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. 2020 has given us no shortage of clouds, and, if you’re an optimist, silver linings. Drawing Life has done its best to look on the bright side and come up with new ways to help people living with dementia, stroke and other age-related issues to stay creative and tell the world, ‘We’re still here!’

Until Covid-19 upturned everything, Drawing Life held regular art classes in care homes and in the community.  Our classes were little performances – transforming the lounge into an art studio, with an artist playing the part of teacher and a model setting a scene with costumes, props and backdrops.  Participants became artists for an hour, expressing themselves with sketches, scribbles, assorted marks and meaningful splodges, sometimes with words, and often with laughter.

Drawing is a proactive rather than passive task, inspiring a feeling of purpose.  During every class there was a remarkable sense of concentration – almost meditative.  Many care-givers told us that our classes reduced anxiety as soon as people sat down with paper and pencil, and they would remain calm for quite a while afterwards.  Drawing gives care-givers a different perspective too, prompting new subjects to talk about with those who may have lost the art of conversation. 

The Covid-19 outbreak put our classes on hold. Our first response was to create a specially designed sketchbook, which is now in the hands of hundreds of keen artists all over Britain. Carers and activity coordinators have asked us for support so they can help people make the most of the sketchbooks.  They want hints and tips on how to set up sessions and develop drawings.  Our next move was to establish a YouTube channel on which we hope to offer the next best thing to being in the room.

Now anyone can watch our artists reprise their roles as teacher and introduce a model with plenty of clear instructions.  The leap from sketchbook to screen doesn’t change any of our key messages. We still want people to draw with an ‘anything goes’ approach: to relax, make some marks, take their pencil for a walk around their paper, and most important – have fun. Our videos can be viewed at any time so that carers can plan ahead and hit play once they have gathered their artists together in front of a screen.  There’s always the pause button if a longer pose is needed for people to finesse that last detail.  

We are developing ideas for a new series called Sixty Seconds in the Studio in which we visit a working artist’s studio, look around and watch them create a drawing in our sketchbook. These videos will be uploaded soon and will introduce viewers to new people, new locations and easy drawing techniques.

The forecast is cloudy – there might be a vaccine soon, but face-to-face art sessions look a long way off.  No one has been immune to the disruptions and difficulties posed by the pandemic, not least those in care homes, but we hope our innovations will unlock people’s imaginations and help them find their inner artist.

We are very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund and Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust for their support.

• View our studio art sessions and subscribe to: www.youtube.com/drawinglife Sketchbooks are free of charge and can be ordered through our website: www.drawinglife.org  

For the last five years we have held regular art classes in care homes and in the community, providing a place for social interaction and individual expression.  During this time we have exhibited selected works in local galleries, most recently at Hastings Contemporary.  

Through our work we have found that drawing reveals something fascinating about the lives and memories of our participants, and among many benefits, our classes offer carers new subjects to talk about with those who may have lost the art of conversation.  

Something real and personal, a book to make marks in and hold in their hands

“The sessions are more than just an activity for those with dementia, they also provide unique and significant support for the carers – which makes us better carers,” said Dan China, husband and carer.

The Covid-19 outbreak has put all that work on hold, closing galleries and preventing public gatherings.  In response we have created a unique sketchbook as an alternative to face-to-face drawing sessions that everyone can enjoy.  We thought about going high-tech, with our models appearing on screen via Skype or Zoom, but rather than relying on unstable broadband signals and other annoying technical problems that always seem to crop up, we decided to go no-tech.  We wanted everyone to have an actual sketchbook; something real and personal, a book to make marks in and hold in their hands.

Each sketchbook features 25 photos of our models, Mike Mitchell and Elaine Joslin, opposite a blank page for people to make an original drawing. It also contains 40 beautiful and original line drawings for colouring-in, created by our brilliant team of local artists, Oska Lappin, Patrick Altes, Matthew Radford and Robert Sample.

It’s up to each person how they use this sketchbook, but we suggest each participant should have a book of their own, and draws one model pose per session, for 20 to 30 minutes, using pencil, charcoal, colour or a combination of all.  If doing this as part of a group session, carers can show the drawings round the room and have a chat about them. Next, people can spend up to 30 minutes colouring one of the line drawings. Perhaps there is a story connected to the drawing, a special location, or a memory to discuss while doing this. 

We hope everyone enjoys creating their own images inspired by our models sitting in some of our previous classes.  We want users to relax, make some marks, take their pencil for a walk around the pages, and most important of all: have some fun! 

• We are very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund for their support, and sketchbooks are free of charge until our coffers run dry. Books will be available early June and can be pre-ordered through our website:  www.drawinglife.org

Hastings Contemporary
Until 22nd March 2020
Proceeds from the sale of work go to the Drawing Life charity. 

By Julia Mortimer 

The Drawing Life project has grown, almost beyond recognition. Long-term readers will remember the days when we looked at the drawings and said: “Wow, that’s amazing for someone living with dementia.” Looking at this latest exhibition displayed on the walls of Hastings Contemporary’s gorgeous new Boatyard Café, we now simply say: “Wow, these are really interesting pictures.”

Based on the premise that people living with dementia have as much right to add to cultural life as anyone else, Drawing Life takes a professional model and a practising artist to care homes in the Hastings and St Leonards area. As well as taking the team to the care homes, Drawing Life has also set up in the studios at Hastings Contemporary and The De La Warr Pavilion.

The Drawing Life show comprises 15 drawings made by people with different types and degrees of dementia. At the private view a fortnight ago today, the exhibition images were attracting a lot of attention. It was particularly uplifting to see the works being treated with equal care and attention to those in the Contemporary’s galleries downstairs and across the landing. The works produced in the Drawing Life project show a strength and intensity that calls for closer consideration. Two spectators I spoke to were intrigued by the muscularity of Edith’s work in particular. Sadly, Edith has recently died, but there is an eloquence in the ferocity of her drawing that articulates her frustration and exasperation. The result is a vivid, vibrant shout of colour that leaps out of the exhibition space, making the viewer stop and reflect.

Similarly forceful are the works of Judith, Vera and Graham which again command our attention and invite us to ask questions. Compositionally, Vera and Judith are similar, with an intense concentration of colour and shape in one corner relieved by a significant amount of white space. It’s tempting to perceive this as an allegory for the part of the brain that is still functioning in a sea of unfathomable whiteness, but it’s equally tempting to see two fine portraits that have depth and meaning and communicate powerfully with their audience.

I have seen the production of some of these pieces during Judy Parkinson’s Drawing Life classes and observed participants overcoming their initial uncertainty to find unexpected pleasure and focus in rediscovering the joys of drawing. Without exception, there is always an incredible mood of concentration and calm during the classes, which is a key benefit of the Drawing Life concept. For some people making art has been a lifelong interest, but others haven’t drawn since primary school. 

Hastings Contemporary has played a blinder in exhibiting these drawings alongside recognised artists – they remind us all that art is for everybody and that it fulfils us in many and varied ways, whether as viewer or artist, professional practitioner or talented amateur – we all have something vital to say, but some of us are more eloquent with a crayon than words.

Depot, Pinwell Road, Lewes, BN7 2JS
Saturday 28 September – Saturday 19 October 2019

Preview by Susan de Muth

At the end of May this year, I reported to HIP readers on the Drawing Life demonstration class and exhibition at A Wave of Dreams Arts Lab. Drawing Life classes, the brainchild of best-selling author and Hastings resident, Judy Parkinson, are for people living with dementia and the exhibition showcased the resulting work. I was struck at the time by the level of focus and concentration the participants displayed, and their obvious enthusiasm for the Drawing Life project as a whole.

Patrick Altes ‘self portrait2’

Drawing Life, a registered charity, has been going for four years now and boasts some classy regular tutors all of whom are established international artists: Matthew Radford has exhibited widely in Europe and the USA and has taught at the Slade, The New York Studio School and Camberwell Art College; Oska Lappin hails from the Pacific North West coast of America and has exhibited extensively in the US and Europe as well as being a favourite artist at Rye Gallery; Patrick Altes, born in colonialist Algeria,  has work
in public collections in many countries and is currently preparing for two major solo shows (in London and St Leonards).   

With such talent on board, Drawing Life is taking an exciting new step forward with a show at Depot Lewes, integrating the work of people with dementia with that of the artist-tutors, who have curated the show.

Matthew Radford ‘Park’

In the Moment explores how the artist-tutors have been inspired by the unique expressions created under their guidance. 

Oska Lappin projects drawings created by people living with dementia onto a sculpted background she has made for the show. “I have used dementia drawings to create a stream of memories from ‘in the moment’ activity”, she explains.

Patrick Altes presents his own abstracted, colourful, self-portraits alongside works by participants in the Drawing Life classes. “The works I am presenting are carefree, unconscious and primal explorations. They are apparently simple, yet multi-layered in their reference to the fleeting notion of identity. I want to convey the sense that our humanity is the core of all of us and never really disappears”, he says. “In this respect they are to be seen as a message of hope.”

Most touching, perhaps, is one of Matthew Radford’s contributions called Park. He has made cut-out drawings, each attached to a base of card so that they stand up, depicting (as the title suggests) people in the park. “A metaphor for the fragility of memory, it is neither drawing nor sculpture, yet it is present in the ‘real’ world,” he explains. Radford has placed the work in the outside space at Depot – potentially a risky strategy, surely? “Whatever happens to it is fine…it will be affected by its position outdoors, showing the fleeting nature of our memory, experience and perception of the world. It will be blown by the wind, rained on or even chewed by dogs (I hope not!) just as our thoughts and experiences are changed by things that happen to us in life.”  

Matthew Radford ‘it doesn’t matter who you are’

An innovative addition to the show is a soundtrack created for it by the international DJ Danny Rampling and Aidan Lavelle, using sound effects recorded live during Drawing Life sessions.

Events around the exhibition include a panel discussion between the three artist-tutors and regular life models about how they have been affected by their participation in Drawing Life (28 September 2.30pm). Julian Bell, tutor at the Royal Drawing School, will talk about the value of drawing as a vital creative and intellectual endeavour to people living with dementia and their carers on 12 October at 2.15pm.

Patrick Altes ‘self portrait’

Drawing Life is a warm-hearted, optimistic project showing human nature at its kindest and best… it is worth the trip to Lewes to feel the glow!

• For more information and opening times please check website www.drawinglife.org

The class lasts almost an hour, with expert tutors – all professional artists – on hand to guide and encourage.

The Drawing Life project is the brainchild of Hastings-based, best-selling author, Judy Parkinson.

Four years ago, Judy felt there was a need to establish something creative for the dementia community, “I wanted to change perceptions about dementia,” she says, “people are amazed by the drawings, and the way that people who may struggle with speech and memory are able to express themselves through art in a strongly individual style.” 

The models change pose, and the artists are encouraged to overlayer the previous sketch, giving an impression of movement. “Fill the page with dancers,” urges Matthew Radford, an international artist who also teaches at the Slade School of Art, “you probably remember nice crowded dance halls!”

One elderly lady quips that there weren’t many men as handsome as today’s model. “Well we can’t take him home with us!” her carer jokes.

There is banter and laughter throughout the session, which is not only creative but therapeutic, according to Kim Mann, Lifestyles Manager at Hastings Court care home. “It’s confidence-building,” she says. “People become timid when they are unable to do things they used to do with ease, but the tutors here are so encouraging that they feel good about themselves again.”

The classes also provide some respite and support for carers. For the daughter of one artist, they “give us the chance to enter their world without
the frustrations which often accompany communication.”

Directing the models into their final pose, Oska Lappin – another professional artist who offers her time to the project – urges attention to detail: “look at eye shape and colour, the feather in her hair…”

At the end of the session, each artist’s work is shown to the rest of the group to overwhelmingly positive feedback. Some would not look out of place in a modern art museum and, as Judy Parkinson comments, “these artists have the power to teach the tutors a thing or two!”

International artist Patrick Altes, another regular tutor, agrees. “It’s inspiring to see how people living with dementia deal with the fundamental problems of drawing – perspective, angles, movement and so on – and this makes me reconsider my own approach to these things.”

Work done, the artists are happy to tell me about what the classes mean to them. For Anne and Belinda (not their real names) coming to the classes has resulted in a new friendship; Clare was told she was ‘hopeless’ at Art at secondary school but is now one of the group’s stars.

James – formerly a professional musician – refuses to attend any other activities on offer but always attends the Drawing Life sessions.  “I know why that is,” says Belinda. “It’s because the tutors know what they’re talking about. They’re proper artists so we trust them and do our best.”

• To find out more go to: www.drawinglife.org