Profiles in paint: contrasting responses to a common artistic exercise by people with different dementias

Abstract

Paintings could offer insight into the varied experiences of people with different dementias. In this project, a single exercise - the painting of a group of objects in still-life - was used to capture artistic production in four artists with different diagnoses of dementia and four healthy artists. Whilst quantitative studies provide important insights into the neuroanatomical supports for artistic actions, autonomous art exercises may yield deeper understanding of the individual creative experience in the context of neurodegenerative disease.

Keywords: Visual arts; dementias; interdisciplinary research; neuroscience.