Home’s portrait competition is ‘first of its kind’

A HEREFORD care home recently hosted a ‘Portrait Artist of the Year” competition – a collaboration which brought together its residents and aspiring young artists from local colleges.

The event, believed to be the first of its kind held by a care home in the UK, was hosted by Brockington House.

The home, which is part of Dormy Care Communities, invited a dozen students from two local colleges –Hereford College of Arts and Hereford Sixth Form College – to spend the day at Brockington to create their portraits.

The residents acted as models and the artists used a variety of different mediums including charcoal, paints, ink and digital to create the portraits. They were considered by a judging panel which included local artist Mark Stewart of Sunrise Giants, home director Shann Thomas, the home’s activities co-ordinator and organiser of the competition, Tara Chatterley-Russell and Dormy Care Communities chief executive Helen Davies-Parsons.

Shann said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the students in to Brockington House. The ladies and gentlemen loved meeting them and very much enjoyed acting as models for the day. We would very much like to thank both colleges for being so enthusiastic and for getting involved.

“It is a great opportunity for the different generations to mix and we hope this will now lead to more collaborations and an annual competition. We think, from our research, that this is the first competition of its kind to be held by a care home in the UK.

“It was incredibly difficult to choose our winners as they all captured the likenesses of our ladies and gentlemen so well.

“We plan to hold an exhibition of the portraits so all of the ladies and gentlemen at Brockington, and their families, have a chance to view them and enjoy them as much as we have. ”

After much deliberation and careful consideration, the title of Portrait Artist of the Year, and a Hobbycraft voucher worth £150, was awarded to 17-year-old Darcy Eccleston from Hereford College of Art for his charcoal portrait of Yvonne.

The runners-up were also presented with vouchers.

A Hampshire care home has raised nearly £1,000 for children’s hospice charity Julia’s House by staging a bohemian-style garden fete. Residents, friends and staff at Kingfishers in New Milton created the hippy vibe by making more than 100 pom poms along with tassels and macramé hanging art. As well as decorating the garden, they wore floral dresses, tops and resident-made wreaths, sold handcrafted gifts and held a raffle of donated goods. The upshot was a total of £910.44 for Julia’s House, the home’s main nominated charity for support this year. “It all looked so colourful and joyful when you entered the gardens,” said companionship team member Christina Holliday. “Our residents loved having their families and friends with them on this special summer’s day.”

He became a club member after he settled in London, his early life being spent travelling the world.

His father was in the Army so he and his mother followed him after he was posted to ports around South Africa such as Port Elizabeth.

They returned to England when he was about 13 just as the bombs were falling in London during World War II.

Ted left school when he was 18, thought about going into the law, but instead, he decided he wanted to travel more so started working for oil company Esso.

He then joined the Royal Navy for 10 years as a purser on passenger ships, before returning to Esso.

While working in London, Ted joined the YMCA in Great Russell Street, just off Tottenham Court Road.

He went there almost every day, playing badminton and squash and making many friends with whom he played.

He has been a member of the club for so long now, the organisers decided to make him an honorary member.

“I always had a good time there mixing with everyone and being social. It became half the reason I went there, the other half being to exercise,” Ted said.

After he joined, the female equivalent club was located opposite, so dances were arranged where the women could join them. In the end, the clubs amalgamated to become one club, which Ted thought was an excellent idea.

After the visit, Ted said: “It’s been a really good day. Everyone has had enough time for me to talk to them and I’ve really enjoyed my day.”

Betty Wood, Brendoncare Stildon’s wellbeing coordinator, added: “It was a pleasure to take Ted back to a place which holds so many memories for him.

“It was a beautiful sunny day and we are so grateful to everyone at the YMCA for making Ted feel so welcome.”