Rosemary Graham, a Pembrokeshire-based artist and writer, has kindly donated three of her paintings to the Paul Sartori Foundation’s Complementary Therapy suite. Two paintings had previously been purchased by the Foundation in 2017 using grant funding. The charity had just moved into its current home in Winch Lane and the paintings were used to decorate the Therapy Suite where patients and their carers are invited to take up complementary therapies such as massage and reiki.

Complementary Therapy Team Co-ordinator Heather Green said, “Rosemary’s work just fits the ambiance of the Therapy Suite, and her art holds a sense of peace and playfulness that helps people to relax when they’re here receiving treatment with our team”.

Rosemary understands the value of complementary therapy on a deeply personal level. When an M.E. diagnosis stopped her career in education in its tracks, Rosemary turned to reiki and other therapies as part of her 10-year journey to healing herself. Her paintings, often featuring circles symbolising wholeness, the cycles of nature, and symmetry, are relatable to the charity’s complementary therapy clients as they express a connection to something bigger; the art and the therapy work in perfect synergy to relax both the body and the spirit.

While Rosemary’s art is inspired by her battle with her health, she is by no means a stranger to the art world. Her father was the Dean at Manchester College of Art, and her mother was an illustrator and milliner, amongst many other creative endeavours. Rosemary became an art teacher, working primarily with junior-aged children, and her studies included a seven-year study of textiles which influenced her pieces.  She worked with Manchester University on a project to help develop creativity in children via the arts.

Rosemary exhibits her work and reads her poetry in venues and galleries across England and Wales, with connections to creative people and inspiring spaces throughout the UK. When she settled in West Wales almost 11 years ago, she was looking for places to hang her art when one of Paul Sartori’s Complementary Therapy Team noticed her work and proposed that it would be perfect for the charity’s new Therapy Suite.

Clinical complementary therapies offered by Paul Sartori are used alongside conventional health care to support patients at the end of their lives, as well as their carers. The aim is to provide relaxing beneficial treatments, self-help strategies, and products tailored to individual needs and to help ease physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms such as pain, anxiety, depression, muscle tension, nausea, fatigue, and breathlessness. This free service, which includes treatments such as massage, aromatherapy, reflexology, and reiki, is for adults in Pembrokeshire living with life-limiting conditions, as well as those who care for them. Clients are seen in their homes, or at the Paul Sartori House Therapy Suite to holistically assess their needs and to set up a course of treatment.

To request a telephone consultation, the Complementary Therapy Health and Wellbeing Advice Line is 07917 074300 and is open from Monday to Friday from 9 am until 5 pm.

To contact Rosemary Graham about her work, please email rosemary.graham2244@gmail.com or call 07720032748.

Photo: Judith Williams, Grant Development Officer at Paul Sartori with Katie Welsford, Complementary Therapist, artist Rosemary Graham, and Heather Green, Complementary Therapy Team Co-ordinator at Paul Sartori.