ELDERLY care home residents in Oxford have turned their hands to modern art.

Their 1.5-metre high bronze sculpture, entitled Positive Touch, has been put on display in the garden of the Isis Care and Retirement Centre in East Oxford.

Derived from residents’ drawings of their hands, the sculpture resembles the abstract curves of clasped hands and from some angles looks like a feather.

Artists Wesley and Helen Jacobs, from Stanford in the Vale, created the £10,800 artwork after running painting and glass printing sessions at the care home, in Cornwallis Road over 10 weeks.

Mrs Jacobs, 30, said: “Positive Touch represents the theme of hands creating and caring, which emerged during the sessions.”

Residents made plaster casts of their hands and put them together in different combinations.

Then Mr and Mrs Jacobs used them to come up with three final designs, from which the final sculpture was selected.

Ms Jacobs said: “It has been a real privilege for us to work with residents at the care home.

“We were able to see them expressing themselves creatively with some new and unknown art forms and help to create and enjoy this final piece of art.”

Care home manager Nick Hill said: “By focusing on what residents can do, rather than what they cannot do, we’ve seen our residents are increasingly finding more pleasure and variety in their lives.”

tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk