West Bay residents have a beach in basement thanks to Little Rhody Rembrandts

By Anessa Petteruti
Posted 6/27/17

Residents at the Brookdale West Bay Assisted Living Community on West Shore Road in Warwick are able to enjoy Narragansett Bay both outdoors and now indoors.

Thanks to Little Rhody Rembrandts …

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West Bay residents have a beach in basement thanks to Little Rhody Rembrandts

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Residents at the Brookdale West Bay Assisted Living Community on West Shore Road in Warwick are able to enjoy Narragansett Bay both outdoors and now indoors.

Thanks to Little Rhody Rembrandts (LRR), a 20-year-old progressive group of 28 volunteers dedicated to promoting the art of decorative painting and preserving its history, Brookdale residents can view a 15-by-10 foot mural of a porch overlooking a bay and lighthouse.

“We’re just a group of mostly women at this point – however, men are more than welcome – who love to paint and do good for others,” explains Jennifer Jerdee, a member of LRR for the past 10 years. “I was a total beginner when I started with the Little Rhody Rembrandts. I just happened to join [LRR] because my aunt was in the organization, and it has been just a rewarding ever since.”

For the Brookdale project, the Little Rhody Rembrandts, part of the National Society of Decorative Painters, started off with a blank canvas – a boring cinder block wall that needed a facelift. They then painted on a few white layers in order to level the wall.  Projecting their desired image, they lightly sketched a template for the mural. Using donated paints from Home Depot, they started basing the painting and bringing it to life.  LRR has been working on the painting for about one month, and Jennifer estimates the project will take another couple weeks to complete.

“It’s a really great organization; we have folks who own studios, teachers…we really just enjoy painting together and for a good cause,” says Jerdee.

However, the Little Rhody Rembrandts do more than paint murals.  They have made memory books for children at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, sent care packages to troops, donated blankets to the Linus Foundation and even organized food donations for local food pantries.

The organization has never taken payment for their projects, and each year, they try and complete at least one community project.

Doreen Demers, who works at Brookdale Assisted Living West Bay, explains, “When the Little Rhody Rembrandts are working on the mural, the residents are able to come in and ask them questions, which makes them truly feel like they are a part of the process, even though they are not painting anything.  Through this painting, our residents are really able to feel an emotional connection to their childhood or the bay and surrounding nature.  To us, it’s a laundry room with three washers and dryers, but to the residents, it’s much more.”

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