NOT in the slow lane, YET

The blog is about living life after 70 with joy, resilience, and purpose. NOT in the slow lane, YET is a source of positive, helpful advice encouraging people to set and achieve goals and find joy in life. The blog will cover personal experiences and thoughts and concerns. Topics of blogs will be health, retirement, fashion, travel, and living in continuing care retirement communities. The blogs will be short and appear at least once a month on my website www.nadineblock.com or by email if you choose. Come walk with me.

Art matters to retirees. It’s time to make art, even if it is hideous.

We didn’t have time to make art in our work lives, but now we can. Painting is a creative hobby with lots of benefits. It’s relaxing and stimulating, improves cognitive and fine motor skills, reduces stress, and enlarges social connections by offering a chance to meet new people. Just get started painting!   You’ll make lots of mistakes.  Every painting is an experiment. 

Remember, you will only stop making mistakes when you die.  Join a class and get started.  You are in for a colorful adventure!

Seeing art and making art help promote healthy aging.

When I retired at 74, I decided to learn to draw and paint. I have always enjoyed seeing and collecting art. Art galleries and museums were a priority on my travels around the world. I hadn’t taken classes but wrote and illustrated travel stories for my grandchildren, hoping to get them interested in travel. In my retirement, I have dived into writing and painting. After achieving a little skill, I found making art relaxing and healthy. 

From 2014 to 2021, I made forty hand-painted cards every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I stopped doing that.  I still send cards with photos of my art to  40 friends and family members during the holidays.  This year, I am painting two angels for my cards.  The card is dedicated to my two sons, who died of cancer in the last four years.   I promised I would remember them every day of my life.    They appear in the sky in my walks floating in the bright orange, yellow, and purple morning sky with their angels. I tell them I love them.  I ask their angels to watch over them. They wave and smile.  The angels gently turn them back into the sky.   I  think how lucky I was to have them. 

Art helps us experience a more contemplative world.

Viewing a landscape or seascape painting can be calming.   We relive our memories and become spiritually involved with paintings.  The landscape art may be muted by a mysterious mist.  Buildings may be part of a landscape painting. Each artist brings us a vision to contemplate.   We add them to our memories.   Paintings create feelings about emerging social issues.   Artists lead in describing social problems visually.  Norman Rockwell often painted warm, homey, small-town people in his paintings.  In 1964 he surprised us with his painting,  “The Problem We All Live With.”  Deputy marshals escort Ruby Bridges, a little Black girl, to an all-white school in New Orleans. The painting is etched from my memory, a brave little girl in a hostile environment.    It became a symbol of the civil rights movement.   Some art is alarming, such as Pablo Picasso’s Guernica.  The painting sends an anti-war solid feeling.  Art gives me joy. It may be a painting of an exuberant group of happy people like  “Dance” by  Henri Matisse.    I love flowers like Van Gogh’s happy paintings  “Sunflowers” or  “Oleanders.”   Colors in paintings can give us joy – colors like orange, yellow, red, green, and pink.  

 For some people, art deepens their understanding of God.  Churches are filled with art in architecture, the design of the sanctuary, stained glass windows, statues, and flowers. All engage us in worship.  Art gives us a feeling and vision of God. It is a bridge between the logical and irrational worlds.  

Making art relieves stress and distracts us from our physical problems.

Art activities can improve memory recall, critical thinking skills, and attention span.  They may help delay the progression of memory problems that come with age and may form new brain cells.  A caution is that some positive effects lack clinical trials with large samples demonstrating long-term positive effects.  Painting is therapy for me.  It relieves stress and provides training for tremors in my hands.   I paint with oils or acrylics, which are easy to wipe off or redraw with a brush.    I paint landscapes from photos, so I don’t have to carry lots of equipment and fluids I might spill or drop.  I usually paint on a medium size canvas,  20×16 inches.  I struggle to paint miniature figures and straight lines.  I am trying to develop a more fluid, abstract style that is easier for those with movement disorders.

Making art is often a Zen experience for me. Zen refers to the mindfulness, peace, and interconnectedness associated with Buddhist teachings and practice. Usually, I get so caught up in painting that I lose track of time. If I paint a human figure, I work intently to make my art match my vision. I am in the world of creativity.  

 After hours of painting, I put down my brushes. I am not fatigued. I am relaxed.

Art stimulates creativity.

I took five years of weekly classes in drawing and painting human figures.  I was not fond of the crowded, slovenly studio and the dirty chairs the naked models sat on.  I tried to make their surroundings more beautiful by painting them as beaches, gardens, and forests. I adorned artists’  heads with feathery hats, cloches, and ribbons.  I should have spent more time on their bodies, but I didn’t have to paint for good grades. I was a retiree.     One day, a 300-400-pound model walked in and sat gingerly on a rickety chair.  My heart went out to her for her bravery.  I panicked.  How could I paint her? How could I make her brave, lovely person dominate art, not her bulk?   In the first session, I painted on 16×20 canvas light blue brick walls, no figure, just walls.  I needed time to think of a way to paint her.  I started painting her body on the blue wall in the next session.  Then, it came to me.  I started rubbing out parts of her body, leaving her face and enough of her body to give it form.  It ended up being one of the most creative projects I had done. My empathy for the models and the tools at hand, as well as my paintbrushes, made me more creative.

Art puts us in a happy mood.

Art makes me happy and improves my self-confidence. Sometimes, it makes others happy. When I exhibit my art, people come to me to tell me they like it, and sometimes, they purchase it.   During the holidays in 2023, I went to visit a friend. Over the years, he and his wife saved my Christmas cards. They used them as Holiday decorations for their kitchen door frame.  Knowing my art makes people happy gives me a significant boost of confidence. That validation helps me keep going, though I would paint without it because it makes me happy.  

Be happy:   You can make art. 

Here are some ways to begin getting skills in making art. 

l.  Feast your eyes on art In museums, galleries, u-tubes, and library books.  What art do you like?  While this post is about painting, check out other arts:   glass blowing, collage, sculpture, and quilting. 

2. I found it helpful to start by taking drawing classes.  I took lessons in my community senior citizen building and a nearby cultural arts center, from local artists in their studios and through zooms with them, from U-tubes, and college art classes on Zoom and in person.

3. Choose your medium:  watercolor, acrylic, oil, pastel, colored pencil.  I found it easiest to start with acrylic painting, but I took classes in pastel painting and then moved to oil painting.

4.  Gather supplies.  The classes you choose will give you a list of supplies.  You will need paint, brushes and paper or canvas. 

5. Find a place to work and store your supplies

7. Make friends of artists.  My art friends gave my life a whole new perspective.  They encouraged me and helped me learn.  They were fun to be with.

It’s never too late to make art.  Try it.  What have you got to lose?

Do you want to know more?

National Institute on Aging

 Research Highlights

“Participating in the arts creates paths to healthy aging.”

February 15, 2019