An artistic care home resident who paints with his mouth is helping to create golden bunting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a top music festival.
The decorations will decorate St Asaph Cathedral where the two-week North Wales International Music Festival will be held from September 17 to October 1.
Members of an art group at Pendine Park in Wrexham were invited to join the anniversary taskforce preparing bunting, banners and celebratory garlands, including Steven Neal.
Steven taught himself to paint by holding his art brushes in his mouth due to his multiple sclerosis, which means he cannot use his hands.
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The 69 year old lives at Pendine Park’s Penybryn care home, where he has become a regular member at the art club run by Pendine Artist in Residence Sarah Edwards, and hadn’t painted prior.
Like fellow residents, he is pleased to be a part of the North Wales International Music Festival creative crew.
Steven and other Pendine art club enthusiasts have been tasked with painting eye-catching black silhouettes of musical notes, musical instruments and performing figures on a golden coloured background.
The resulting illuminated images will stand out to striking effect providing a sensational backcloth for big name festival performances.
Steven is a qualified draughtsman by trade but said the technical drawings which his former career involved were mostly straight lines drawn to strict calculations, but his latest artworks have taken him in a new direction. He paints, landscapes, nature and animals.
He said: “I am no grand master but I am definitely improving. I’ve built up quite a portfolio and can see the progress since I first started drawing with my mouth.”
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He adapted his pens and paintbrushes to different lengths with slender hard plastic pipes which he spotted being used by a carpenter doing a job at the care home.
He said: “I’d been looking for something to make my brushes slightly longer and when I saw these small tubular pipes I knew they’d be perfect. They are comfortable for me to use and flexible enough for me to impart some finer details.”
Steven attends the Pendine art group on every possible occasion and enjoys the opportunity to paint alongside other art enthusiasts.
Another keen member of the group is Tracey Wilde who said she has created 57 pieces of bunting so far.
She said: “I love it. We’re all really excited that what we’re creating here will be seen by so many people at the festival. It reminds me of when I used to learn to play the piano accordion for a short time. I can hear the music in my head as I am painting.”
The festival community organising team provided the art group with pre-cut gold painted mulberry paper onto which they could paint their individual designs on the theme of ‘all things music’.
This year’s 50th jubilee programme includes concerts by virtuoso harpist Hannah Stone accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as she plays a harp concerto penned by Anglesey composer Gareth Glyn.
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Other highlights include early music group Red Priest, award winning Welsh folk band Calan, the hypnotic Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, the festival’s acclaimed resident orchestra NEW Sinfonia performing with the National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain and a new community opera based on the legend of Gelert.
It is supported by the Arts Council of Wales and the festival’s headline sponsor, the Pendine Arts and Community Trust which was set up by the Pendine Park to provide funding for much-needed arts and community enrichment activities
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