Peaceful Painting session provides multisensory stimulation at St George’s

The people living at St George's Court Care Home enjoyed a multisensory ‘peaceful painting’ session with soothing sounds of nature, floral scents, and delicious drinks and snacks.

The event was held during National Relaxation Day, to encourage people to unwind and relax while enjoying the calming effects of canvas painting. To further promote relaxation amongst the group, the soothing sounds of nature played in the background, and floral scents were introduced through the use of a diffuser.

The session started with a short breathing exercise and guided hand movements, before putting paint to paper and practising some basic flower designs. The practice painting aimed to ensure everyone could test out the different brush types and techniques before starting on their larger canvas piece.

The people participating in the room began to notice floral scents in the air as they were painting and said combined with the images of plants that were being shown on the TV, it felt like they were somewhere else! Mimicking a change of scenery through multisensory stimulation has a positive effect on the people taking part and helped to inspire ideas for their canvas piece.

As people became more comfortable with painting techniques and the colours they wanted to use, work on the canvases began.

Some people opted to paint from memory, with one lady painting a beloved pet cat she once owned, whilst other people took inspiration from the pictures and props that had been placed on the tables.

Throughout the session, there was light chatter and laughter as people compared paintings. Some of the more experienced painters in the room also helped their friends and showed them ways to achieve different colours, by either mixing or using water to create a lighter shade.

Through collaboration with friends and multisensory inspiration, people were able to create wonderful works of art!

Reflecting on the session, Joan who lives at St George’s Court said, “It was a very productive and enjoyable experience. The materials were plentiful and lots of encouragement was given,” whilst her friend Belinda said, “I have enjoyed today’s session, especially taking part with friends.”

Overall, it was very positive morning filled with fun, laughter and relaxation!

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