Roma-born octogenerian Camille Christensen knows all about the healing power of art. After two strokes, the 81-year-old says her painting has helped her through many tough times.
"When you're painting, you're just in a different world," she said. "There's nothing else. You're just concentrating on the painting."
Being resilient has been a hallmark of Camille's life in the face of health challenges including the strokes and visual impairment. "I just got on with it," she said.
She moved to Bolton Clarke's Galleon Gardens residential aged care community in 2018 to support her growing health needs.
Getting back to painting wasn't easy, but with a speech therapist and occupational therapy, Camille found and renewed her talents during rehab, all without the use of her dominant hand.
"My left hand is paralysed. I basically had to relearn how to paint. It was very hard, and it took me several years."
I basically had to relearn how to paint.
- Camilla Christensen
Switching from her non-dominant hand also brought a new style in an artistic career spanning more than 60 years, from when she first fell in love with painting at 14.
"I developed my passion for painting after study and not a day went by that I didn't paint."
Camille says she took a more planned approach to her earlier work. "My earlier paintings feel like freedom to me. I was free of restrictions that I have now."
Since her stroke and rehabilitation, she has adopted abstract impressionism - painting by feel and instinct more than sight. "I've begun to paint with my hands and fingers more than a brush because of my macular degeneration.
She said her paintings "unveil themselves" to her as she works.
"With abstract painting, I close my eyes and make shapes with charcoal. The paintings reveal themselves to me after that. I don't often know what they are until I add colour."
One of Camille's recent works, The Medusa, captures the challenges she has faced, and the struggles of disruption many have experienced recently. "My Medusa represents frustration, a trapped feeling, devastation, depression and almost desperation. I didn't know it was her I was painting at first - I had painted swirls, and then realized they were snakes above her head.
"Her eyes are just starting to open, and the legend goes that when she fixes you with her eyes you turn to stone."
Camille's next challenge will be writing a book about her life as part of Bolton Clarke's Life Stories project.