Art keeps Ricky looking to the future

For Juniper Home Care customer Ricky Muthukumaraswamy, a love of art in all its forms keeps him motivated and focused on creating his next project.

Born in Sri Lanka, the 86-year-old former banker lives with his much-loved wife Annette surrounded by his artistic output that ranges from rural landscapes in acrylics to pencil sketches of actors dating back to the golden age of Hollywood.

In 2021, Ricky decided to change aged care provider as he liked Juniper’s ideal that he could continue enjoying his hobbies.

“I think art is very therapeutic for me – you can just forget yourself in art,” Ricky said.

“I sketch it all first with pencil sketches, and work from photographs in the comfort of home. You have your euphoria when you have your hobbies.”

For the past four years, Ricky has put his Home Care Package to use with a variety of Juniper services including personal care, domestic assistance, social support and physiotherapy.

Ricky has also accessed occupational therapy through Juniper as needed for equipment and home modifications such as the installation of handrails along with gardening services and transport to and from appointments.

“I feel Juniper is good – they help as much as possible,” Ricky said.

“It’s helped me keep doing what I want to do, it opens the doors for people who want to continue with their hobbies.”

Before moving to Australia in the 1980s, Ricky worked at the Bank of Ceylon where he met his future wife, and the couple worked together for the next two decades and went on to raise three boys.

On arriving in Perth, Ricky effectively started his career again and cleaned offices before putting his background in finance to work with a 10-year stint at the Australian Taxation Office in the Perth CBD. Later, he worked as an interpreter at the Department of Immigration for five years supporting people who spoke Tamil – a language primarily spoken in India.

“I love Perth, I wouldn’t exchange it for any other place – it’s where I nurtured my love for drawing,” Ricky said.

Once retired in the late 1990s, Ricky’s passion for art really came to the fore by attending classes at the Claremont School of Art and having the time to draw and paint.

While diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012, Ricky has not let the condition limit his artistic productivity.

With cherished support from wife Annette, a positive outlook and some adjustments like waiting for tremors to pass or working with his left hand rather than his right, Ricky keeps a busy pace creating new and detailed works.

When not shaping his next piece, Ricky can be found taking in live performances at the Ellington Jazz Club, digitalising family video footage and enjoying classic Hollywood movies like Gone with the Wind, released in 1939, the same year he was born.

Just recently, Ricky hosted a one-day exhibition of more than 30 of his artworks at his home in Forrestfield, which attracted more than 100 people from the local community.

“I plan to keep working – I’ve been commissioned to create portraits, and landscape works for friends, I like to give them as gifts,” he said.

Wrapping up the chat with an impromptu rendition of the Frank Sinatra hit “All the Way” from the late 1950s, it’s plain to see (and hear) that Ricky’s creative outlets continue to fill him with great joy.