This autumn I’ve been working with an innovative pilot project with the charity Paintings in Hospitals, its Relationship & Development Manager Dominic Harbour, and artist Emily Wilkinson. The project, Art Meets Book, teamed up with Better (GLL), local people and creative practitioners across four communities in London and the West Midlands, to create art exhibitions for local libraries. The people who became involved were encouraged to connect through the project. Exploring art with others can help reduce loneliness and ease anxiety by bringing people together to exchange ideas, try something new and make new friends.

Dominic, Emily and I worked with two groups, one associated with Dudley Library, and one with Gornal Library. Each group made its own choice of six paintings to use as inspiration for the workshops that followed. Together we talked about the paintings, told stories the paintings suggested, wrote about them, drew and painted in response to them and created books and postcard art and poetry. All the people in the groups were lovely to work with, from very varied backgrounds, some locals and some for whom English was a second language. I really appreciate their friendliness, inspiration and focus.

You could have sliced
bread with
those starched caps.

Extract from a poem written in the Gornal group about the artwork ‘Crepe’ by David Mach.

Here’s a gallery of work, the photos taken at the Exhibition Launch in Dudley Archives –

After the rain, the tree
scents the house.
The lemon’s smell is a smile.

Extract from a poem written in the Dudley group about the artwork ‘Late Summer – Cosmos’ by Jane Askey.