Another session idea using sand art as inspiration for work with residents at residential homes.

This was a really interesting way of working with older people. The sand was a transient working material and the residents seem to pick it up really easily.

I started showing images and talking about different sand art and how they are used - artists and other sources of inspiration. This felt as though it gave 'validity' to what we were doing (particularly to a retired primary school teacher who always thinks that art activities are for three year olds). One lady was literally pushing the sand around with the brush and as she was doing it - flowers appeared. Shapes emerged and became things. Another lady decided what they were after - she came up with the title being "A man sitting with a rabbit eating a bunch of grapes".

It was also such a lovely tactile medium to work with people with visual difficulties. A lady who is blind just used her fingers to draw and could feel the sand to push it around. I used bright yellows on black for those that could not see very well and they could make out the definite shapes if they used thick lines.

Working with a brush seems to be quite successful - participants seem used to the idea of handling a brush and the bristles helped to collect the sand and move it around.

I enjoy working with the sand myself - pushing it into and out of shapes and negative spaces to create images. Using the brush to create lines at the edges of shapes as well seemed to add to the overall effect. Here are some of my own experiments...

I even like the way they have come out in the photographs - it comes out as an unusual effect. Also, if you play around with the contrast etc. it can become lovely and distorted - quite an organic feel to the image.

I'm going to play around with this a bit more I think!...