Mental health problems inspire exhibition

Over the next month, works by artists with a history of mental health problems will be exhibited at Oxford Town Hall, in St Aldate’s.

Yvonne Mabs Francis, 65, spent months in the Warneford mental institute, Headington, as a young woman after having a nervous breakdown following the death of her father.

Ms Mabs Francis, of Bicester, trained as an artist at University College London, in the 1960s, but was only inspired to paint about her experiences 15 years later, once she was on the road to recovery.

She is treasurer of AIMS, an independent group of artists who are suffering or have suffered mental health problems, and has organised the exhibition.

Ms Mabs Francis said: “I had a nervous breakdown when I was 24 and spent some time in the Warneford. But I only felt able to paint about it some 15 years later.

“I now work entirely from my own imagination.”

She described the group as part of a movement called Outsider Art, an art form born in ‘insane asylums’ or mental health hospitals.

Outsider Art was pioneered in the past decade by people inside the hospitals who would paint and draw on whatever medium they could find, including walls and toilet paper.

Terrentius Andersohn, 62, had a nervous breakdown while he was living in Kenya and working as a game warden.

The trained fine artist from Greater Leys, who has been painting since he was four, contracted malaria and his health and wellbeing deteriorated.

He said: “I do it because it’s me. It’s a part of my identity. It’s as simple as that.”

Jason Randall, 42, of North Oxford, exhibited his sculptures made from recycled and found material.

He said people with mental health conditions often went through periods of extreme creativity.

Mr Randall added: “About 25 years ago, I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I think people with mental health conditions do tend to be creative.

“A lot of the times I have worked through bouts of extreme depression and used that in my work.”