Art with a smile in Eastbourne

John MartinJohn Martin
John Martin
An Eastbourne man is delighting his fellow care home residents with a beautiful array of paintings.

Talented artist John Martin, who was born the month before the Second World War broke out, has been staying at Sovereign Lodge since July.

For a while, he gave up on painting because of Parkinson’s; now he is determined to put Parkinson’s to “the back of my head”, with support and encouragement from activity coordinator Tracy Wenham.

“I love doing it. It gives me a lot of pleasure.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And it is great to resume painting now – a great relaxation as well as a challenge, to get better and better the more he paints and develops his skills as an artist. The pleasure is also in the response he gets.

“I have come back to painting. The pleasure is achieving things.

“I get up some days and I think I will sit and draw, and what comes into my head, I just put on paper.

“When I get the finished result, I get the people around me to tell me what they think. And they say lots of nice things about it!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We have got some ladies here who have got dementia, and I involve them in my painting. They help me. They do bits.

“I give them a complete part to do or whatever, and I get a lot of fun out of seeing them do it.

“They are arguing one minute and then they are looking at the paintings and they are smiling.

“You see smiles on their faces. It gives everybody a big smile.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

• Talk is increasing of further lockdowns in the UK. What do you think of the situation? Join the Big Conversation and have your say on everything from healthcare to how the pandemic has affected you personally and how we make our communities stronger: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/bc-worthing

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice