90-year-old Manitoba artist starting up art classes following pandemic pause

For Joyce Anderson, putting paint to canvas is a creative outlet and a way to escape.

It’s something that couldn’t be more true for the 90-year-old renowned Manitoba artist, after two years of dealing with pandemic lockdowns.

“To paint, it saved my life,” Anderson told Global News.

“Especially when COVID came out and we were in quarantine, a lot of people didn’t know what to do with themselves, but I did.”

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Anderson says keeping busy with her artwork was her way to escape, even when she couldn’t do so physically.

“It was not a very good time, but it was for me. I was able to paint every day,” she said. “I didn’t think of anything else but painting.”

And at the age of 90, Anderson is far from slowing down. She is recently starting to teach her art classes again, and has an art show coming up on Sunday at the River Ridge Retirement Residence.

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“Painting is very good fellowship because you make friends and you keep them, because we’re all interested in the same thing,” Anderson said.

Ken Miller has been attending classes with Anderson for about seven years, and says he was ecstatic to have her art classes starting again.

“I was lost without her,” Miller said.

“And she gives direction and inspiration and keeps you motivated to paint. And she’s just a godsend as far as being a great teacher and a great artist.”