Seeing himself paint

Regarding conditions like "homeostatic design tendency" and "timid brush," I was

Reflection self; oil on linen painting  click image to enlarge

recently standing in front of several superb Matisses in the collection at the Pompidou Centre in Paris with a fellow English painter Clive Blackmore. I asked Clive whether he had ever seen the film of Matisse painting, to which he replied that he had an old BBC video recording of Matisse painting in which the aging Matisse was horrified to discover the indecisiveness of his brushstrokes. Contrary to his sense of his own mark-making he watched himself (on film) repeatedly make dry runs, drawing in air the mark he was eventually to make. I have to say at the time that was something of a relief.

Time to begin

What a can of worms you opened with your comments on "the aging artist!"

Nude At Piano oil painting  click image to enlarge

Perusing the art magazines gives me an uncomfortable feeling since most recent articles feature the young and very young artists. I feel thrown aside since I am over the half-century mark, yet consider myself an emerging artist. Some days I wonder if my efforts are worth the canvas I use. However, I continue to apply paint to canvas believing that my art can contribute some inspiration and pleasure to my audience. I often recall a comment made by Claude Monet at the age of 85. He said that he had finally come to the point where he could "begin to paint."

Age no barrier

I belong to a life-painting group organized by Reg Eldridge who is 85 and painting and selling as well as ever. Another friend Bernard Myers, who has had 4 strokes, is 80 in April, still painting and has a show at the New Grafton Gallery in London, UK. If anything he is more adventurous than when he was younger. It seems age is no barrier.

How old are you anyway?

I think of myself as a young artist even though I have a few decades behind me. As a mother I spent so many years trying to steal a moment of time to even think about art-making, much less doing any art-making. Then a wonderful thing happened, my whole life fell apart and my coping strategy was to return to art school at the age of 48. I was literally in classes with people who could have been my children. But I learned that old brains can function beautifully when stimulated. I could almost feel the physical changes in my brain. I had the sheer pleasure of learning for learning's sake without worrying about all the stuff young people have to face. One day when I was fretting over ordering a "serious easel" my teacher said to me: "How old are you anyway?" That direct comment made me stop in my tracks and realize that I did not have endless time. Now is the time.

Sees bigger picture

As one of those aged artists (I'm 67), I do find I see more of the "bigger picture" and am not sure it has anything to do with my perception of what I actually see (although that has improved with cataract surgery). I find myself frequently in classes with students young enough to be my grandkids and my work is growing and expanding beyond my wildest dreams. I attribute my seeing the 'bigger picture' as to having experienced so much more, living through a lifetime of change, joys and grief and a long relationship with the incredible planet I occupy along with a multitude of amazing and diverse folk. I have more to say in my work with much more freedom to say it. I love the courage and freedom that comes with being a crazy old lady… no holds, no barriers, no fear. We need never retire.

Soul never ages

I used to dance when I was very young. I still dance, however with smaller steps

flame oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm  click image to enlarge

rather than big moves. Physically it is not possible to jump that high. However, when I close my eyes while listening to music, I can jump over the moon or dance like a dervish. My soul dances without my feet. I am the music. My feelings haven't changed a bit, if not become more intense. The soul never ages.

Study the big ones

As an older artist and yet a very new one, I am glad to hear that we've learned something in our life. Most importantly, every artist expresses out of him/herself. The richness of lifelong experiences therefore has to show up in what we do. A year ago I was in a poetry workshop led by a very sage professor. The youngest person in the workshop was 17 and wanted to know how to go about writing better poetry. The answer was: study the Big Ones that have gone before you! I think the same is true for all art. With that foundation, new and fresh ideas usually put forth true masterpieces from young and old.

Value of wisdom

I pondered your writing on aging and decided the only thing missing was "wisdom." Society has always linked aging with elders and wisdom and seeing the big picture. Our life experiences and our understanding of them become our interpretation. I read recently that we are loosing the skill of being interpretive readers and in general our ability to interpret our lives in relationship to what we are viewing and experiencing. This has nothing to do with one's ability to view something and comprehend its meaning but has everything to do with how we interpret it in relationship to what it means to us as individuals. In this vast changing world of technology the old saying "stop and smell the roses " holds even more meaning. If we are to nurture creativity in our youth, we must in our wisdom nurture their ability to interpret. In our wisdom let us not forget, it is the pause that creates the music.

Try something completely different

I haven't found "the" vacuum cleaner, but can come up with a pretty good alternative. Why not try something completely different from what you normally like to do. One thing that most people feel uncomfortable with is change (the only constant thing there is in life), and as we get older we seem to like change even less. Entrenchment stifles art. I am somewhat of an impressionist – loose strokes for lightness and ease, mainly in acrylics. I have enrolled in the Fine Arts Certificate Program at University of Alberta Extension, where I have just completed a very frustrating, wonderful, informative, intense course in oils, copying the masters from a very knowledgeable young artist (I'm an aging artist). This change literally sucked out the energy in me (like a vacuum cleaner), but I came away with so much more, which I can now apply to my own art with refreshing new life.

New gray matter

I figure that if the longevity of my parents is a guide for how long I'll live, I'll actually be a working artist longer than I was a teacher and then a technical writer at a computer company. I have worried from time to time if my mind will let me keep creating. Fortunately, almost all of my work is innovative, so I am creating with "new" gray matter, in that sense. As you may detect from my sign-off quote, I also use your quotations page, changing the quotation each week.

"I work in bursts of energy… like mad fires let loose into nervous breakdowns. And it affected everyone in my life. Perhaps it was God's design to give me a wife who was trained as a psychiatric nurse." (lfredo Liongoren)

(RG note) Thanks Delores. We receive more and more letters from artists who include wonderful quotes that seem strangely familiar. Then we realize where they came from. It's my sincere wish that you will get value from The Resource of Art Quotations.

What else do we need?

I turn 75 in July, and I do not have time to think about numbers. I have to make

inside oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches  click image to enlarge

a living. Age has given me a serenity, and an understanding of who I am and what my limits are. It has helped me to believe in myself and the direction my art has taken. It has validated the preference I have for certain subject matter and the style of my painting. I have come to understand why my realistic style of portraying the things I see is right for me. I do not need to compete with anybody else. I do not have to concern myself with whether my works "say something" other than what they show. Nature is my teacher, my master, and my inspiration. Do we need anything else?

Right time for school

Finally at age 40 I decided to go back to college and study art. I found that I was

9/11 Cowboy original painting  click image to enlarge

the oldest in the class. My teacher saw talent in me. I found that my mind was more focused and less distracted than the other students, as well as I took it much more seriously then they did. I was willing to put that extra time in the project and also I noticed I wasn't as afraid to get to the point with the teachers, since they were the same age as me and we were talking at the same level. I also didn't have the grace of the extra time that the others did and I wanted to take art lessons from the best and learn as much as I could in as short a time as possible. My ability grew quickly because my goals, based on time and success, were clear to me. Ironically, I believe if I allowed myself to major in art at a younger age, I probably would have been discouraged and maybe would have given up.

We are still learning

The more active that one is while aging, the more intelligence improves and the

Purple Iris oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches  click image to enlarge

brain stays fit. Older people may suffer sometimes from "information overload" as a result of neuron loss that affects their short-term memories. However, once new material has been learned, older people can remember as well as their younger colleagues. Acquiring new information activates long-term memories. Says one retiree who started his own company at the age of 65: "God has given us certain talents and he gave them to us to use." A number of well-known artists and business professionals have done their best work after the age of 60. The pianist Vladimir Horowitz was not pleased with his performance at the age of 78. He retired and started to work on his performance at the age of 81 and made a triumphant return to the concert stage. Georgia O'Keeffe took up pottery in her late eighties when her eyesight became too weak for painting. At age 80, the Spanish painter Goya drew a picture of a very old man with the inscription "I am still learning." We all are still learning about the wonder of creation.

Thinking replaced by reacting

I am currently co-authoring a book about learning, and find some interesting comments regarding age versus youth and the idea that as we age we may obtain the ability to focus upon the larger picture more easily. In our book which specifically addresses learning in individual sports, we have given great thought to the other side of the learning experience, which can sometimes be forced upon us, instead of presented in a way that stimulates and nurtures our experience of what we do. Often times it appears that thinking is not really practiced. Sometimes thinking is replaced by reacting. My fondest memories of school come from teachers who stimulated my thinking, not forced me to think. Although I have only written on this subject as an older adult, in a sense these big picture ideas have always been with me. This in no way refutes your thoughts about older adults having the potential to more clearly see the big picture. I have experienced, through my numerous years in the business world, that it was often demonstrated that too few younger colleagues were ever able to functionally see the big picture.

The trouble with axioms

The art I practice is words with meaning. While I believe axioms may have some value, I really equate them with optimists that never graduated from kindergarten. They are useful in beginning a thought perhaps, but never for finishing it. Plato did not write in axioms and the axiom of Socrates in his questioning was "I don't know." To distill ideas in such a fashion only invites more distillation and a feeling of comprehending complex ideas when it simply remains a simple thought not yet fleshed out to an idea.

Optimism and pessimism are very complex attitudes that worm and wriggle this way and that as the occasion demands. Thank goodness they do, or our ignorance would overwhelm us. I feel confident Spinoza was optimistic enough to believe he could complete his work. I feel confident he was pessimistic enough to know it was not finished with an axiom.

See more, know more

For the most part artists just carry on. The work becomes more obsessive and

watercolour abstract

part of the daily routine. There are those who seek a Japanese-like perfection in what they do, or those, like Picasso, who stick to the same themes but continually renew themselves in different media or techniques. As I grow older I see more, understand more, know more, but am constantly up against the problem that this old engine is not able to work as hard as it used to.

Focus comes from experience

When I was a younger artist, ideas came to me in rapid fire, almost in

Trees and River pastel, 16 x 20 inches  click image to enlarge

overabundance. I had to sift through what seemed like all equally great things to try. Now that I'm older, I still get a lot of new ideas but am able to temper them. I can be more patient, and wait to see which ideas stick around and should be taken seriously. After years of "weeding out" ideas, it seems like I'm learning to better recognize the things that are worth exploring. There is a focus that comes from experience, maybe because I've tried so many things in art, and learned what did not work and what did. It is nice to know that, for an artist, there is a good side to getting older.

Become comfortable first

I have noticed that many artists start painting after age 40. My belief is that most

Community acrylic on watercolour paper  click image to enlarge

"self-taught" (i.e. did not go to art school) artists find their voice in painting once they have become comfortable with their lives. I believe that once I had become established, I was able to slow down and look at my world in greater depth. I am voracious in reading about new/different methods and trying them. Everyday I see something else that inspires me. When I was younger I was "too busy" to really see. I finally have come to understand the sentiment in Our Town by Thornton Wilder: Emily asks the Stage Manager if anyone ever realized life while they live it, every minute, and he says: "No. The saints and the poets, maybe they do some." We must include artists in this, as they are poets with a brush.