The Artists Network is a leading online community catered to help teach and inspire people all over to pick up a paintbrush and palette. They provide videos, interactive events and other online features to bring out the artist in everyone. One of their many magazines, Artists Magazine, conducts a number of annual art competitions meant to ensure that anyone with a passion for painting gets a chance to show their skills. These are the 10 winning photographs from the 2019 Over 60 Art Competition, which requires all entrants to be above the age of 60. These gorgeous paintings are proof that one is never too old to create beauty.
“Morning Drinks, Tsumcor depicts a herd of kudu at the Tsumcor waterhole, in Etosha, Namibia. I’ve spent many hours at this place with sketchbook and pencils in hand and camera at the ready, soaking up the atmosphere that’s unique to Africa. The painting took me about six weeks, working about eight hours every day. There was a good amount of wiping off, redrawing and repositioning before I was satisfied with the composition.”
“We had just relocated and were making many trips to home improvement stores when we decided to stop at this sweet little spot. Walking in was like stepping into a time machine. Everything was orange—walls, counter, stools, menus, waitresses’ uniforms. Then I noticed a family of three at the counter, all wearing orange! I had to take some snaps for a painting.”
“Offering of Strength was inspired by the idea of strength during hardship and adversity. The subject holds ginkgo leaves, which have been a symbol of strength for hundreds of years. She represents all women—regardless of status, race or background—and the way they carry themselves with dignity as they deal with struggles throughout their lives.”
“The inspiration for Bananas came when I turned a corner at my local grocery store and saw before me an entire landscape of bananas resting below a seemingly magical light. Even in contrived, highly staged settings, experiences like these are fleeting. The next day most of the bananas, along with the light, were gone, the tableau never to repeated in quite the same way again.”
“When I saw the Yosemite Valley trees glowing in the late afternoon sun, I jumped out of my car and snapped pictures. Back in the studio, I worked without brushes. First I applied liquid masking fluid with a metal palette knife. When this dried, I wet the paper, poured on watercolor diluted with water and then allowed it to dry. Working from light to dark, I repeated this process until I’d completed Yosemite Light.”
“While visiting the Arizona Renaissance Festival, I caught one of the performers in a candid pose as he greeted spectators. I was captivated by the natural light hitting the white hair sticking out of his burlap hat, and his expression had just the right amount of swag. Colored pencil was the ideal medium for this piece; it offered the control of a tiny instrument that could render almost any texture—from whiskers to garment threads.”
“Arno is part of my series that includes 25 portraits of people aged 90 to 104 plus my interviews with each person about their lives and how they’ve dealt with aging. Arno, who died recently, was a Holocaust survivor. He and his brother were separated from their family in Germany as part of the Kindertransport rescue effort. His brother was apprehended and sent to Auschwitz. An elderly couple in Holland hid Arno in a small room in a row house for two years.”
“I was inspired to paint Tulle Rainbow by the array of colors and the airy feel and movement of the layers. I used watercolor pencils for the initial sketch, which helped me to achieve the soft shades of color and to keep the edges defined. The setbacks came when I realized a thread was going off-kilter, making the piece quite an exercise in perspective and accuracy.”
“I’ve always wanted to be perceived as a storyteller. In The Guests Arrive, the hostess waits with excitement for her carnival guests. Half masks will only partially hide their real egos. Oscar Wilde said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.’ ”
“My friend Dorthe’s daughter was leaving for college. Using a photograph from years ago of a child’s first pony ride, I knew I could wind those complicated feelings of love and nostalgia within a watercolor. As I worked,
I explored questions like, ‘What color is love?’ ‘Will your child always follow you?’ ‘Will she want to come home?’ Some were answered in the abstraction.”
