Many happily learning artistic skills they never had time for before

By Louise Rachlis

Across the city, in all kinds of art venues, there are swelling ranks of older artists perfecting their painting.

 “They are all are doing what they have always wanted to do - and that is paint,” says artist Kevin Dodds, who has a gallery at 1101 Bank Street. “They have the time and they are enjoying themselves now in the later years by working on their artistic skills.”

His students tell him that they are inspired by the beautiful artwork on the walls of the gallery, and the soothing music, when they come to paint.

“I have a great following of older female and male students taking my Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes,” says artist Dodds, who describes them as “mostly retired ‘zoomer boomers’, aged approximately 62 to 91.”

“I consider myself very fortunate to have the mature students,” says Marcia Lea, owner of Davis Art School in the Byward Market. “I find all art students to be interesting and diverse people, but these students in particular bring so much life experience and education to the classes.  My daytime mid week classes often have many older students.  These are some of my favourite classes... The conversations in class are amazing with everyone’s rich background.”

 “One day I even taped the conversation, with permission,” she said, “because one of my students was a former RCAF pilot from WWII and another had been a small boy in London during the Blitz.  They were discussing all the planes and the bombings and how they had experienced them.  We learn about more than just art in class, we learn about life and how we can share our experiences with each other.  Art is such a doorway to experience.”

Many of the students who come to Davis Art School are people who have always packed many pursuits into their life, including education, she said. “A large portion of my students are professors and teachers, even art teachers, who want to learn more about art and how they can best express themselves.  They show a life-long commitment not just to teaching but to learning as well....It is wonderful to see people taking full advantage of the opportunity to pursue all of the things that they have always wanted to do, but never had time to before.”

Don Westwood, a retired architect and professor emeritus from Carleton University, is taking art classes at Davis Art School where much of his inspiration comes from unique architectural elements in Siberian wood structures. “When I was an architecture student myself back in the 50s, we used watercolours to help give texture, shadow and three-dimensionality to our design drawings. It was a means to an end; I never had the chance to explore the medium for its own sake. Now I can,” says Westwood, who also a singer, actor and television performer. “One of the main reasons why I am singing in a couple of choirs, indulging in acting workshops and taking art classes is because, as a one-time dedicated teacher myself, I never want to stop learning.”

Westwood feels that taking art classes - “or indulging in any pursuit for that matter - not only gives you the opportunity to continually learn but also offers you the luxury of devoting a few hours solely to one endeavour; to avoid the feeling of guilt one might otherwise sometimes feel when there is often so much else that needs doing around the house!”

He adds that “one essential aspect of all painting is to capture light, in all its complexities. It also happens to be a key quality of successful architecture. That is what attracted me to the paintings of Marcia Lea, and is why I am taking classes from her.” 

He is delighted to be in art class. “Clichés arise because they happen to be based on fact. Such is the case when one hears from some retired folks that they have never been so busy until they retired! It is indeed wonderful to be able to engage in various activities and be relatively free of the petty politics found in most workplaces.”

“Ever since high school, I have always enjoyed using my creativity to paint and use the right side of my brain; creativity,” says another Davis Art School student, Sami Mohanna, a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa and a family doctor.  “It has been very obvious that my visual way of learning has influenced me to go in medicine. The importance of the drawings that described anatomy and pathology as well as the many pictures that helped us to develop our skills has increased my interest towards the arts.” 

He is about to retire and is following his passion for art. “I now have more time to be creative and free to explore new ways to express myself that are completely different from being rigorous and aimed at helping others to return to a healthy state,” said Dr. Mohanna, who gets some of his inspiration from his youth in Egypt. “I can pursue different ways to be myself with different media and enjoy the freedom given to my feelings without being bound to rules, standards or requiring the approval of my peers.  In art, there is no right or wrong, one can act with his intuition. I have this sense of peace with no restriction for the time taken to complete a painting or a drawing.  I am in a constant search to improve my skills. I can do what I feel like, there is no judgment, and I am my own limit.”

  

“It’s good to do activities that use the left and right part of your brain,” says Nola Juraitis, a Glebe artist who has studied with Bhat Boy, Kevin Dodds and Chris James. “After many years spent working on a computer, colour has become an essential part of my life.”

She observed that there are different approaches to art but all are enjoyable: some only paint in the class as a form of relaxation. Others paint both in the class and at home and then some of these go on to sell their paintings. “Regardless of the approach a major side benefit is that you make new friends and some of us have gone on to paint together when the classes end."

“The medium you pick is very important,” says Juraitis. “If you don’t have a car, acrylics and watercolor dry more quickly and are more portable.”

However, oil paints also have advantages on the technique front because they are slower drying and the colours are so luminous. She uses cheap baby oil to clean her oil paint brushes and then just a touch of odorless solvent and dishwashing liquid. “No more cans of smelly turpentine which is a consideration as during winter most of us paint at home. There are ways of working with oils in a non-toxic way.”

She makes a distinction between drawing as an art form and drawing for painting, and emphasizes that new artists shouldn’t be intimidated by drawing. “You can just have fun. It’s a wonderful feeling to dip a brush in paint and put it on a canvas. You link to yourself.”