"A late bloomer is right on time."
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
I was curious about other older men and women who started to paint later in life. I was a professional photographer for over 30 years but it wasn't until I moved to Mexico that I began to take abstract painting classes. My painting intensified during the pandemic and now I paint most every day.
Lines of Sight - Carmen Herrera
I recently discovered the abstract minimalist painter Carmen Herrera. One article I read said she could be the poster child for late bloomers.
Herrera was born in Cuba where she studied architecture in Havana. In 1948 she moved to Paris with her husband and then to New York. Although she had many abstract expressionist friends like Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, her work remained largely unknown. Several art historians suggest this is because she was both a woman and a Cuban.
She continued to create work which was stashed away in her studio until her first small show at El Museo del Barrio in 1998. She did not sell her first painting until age 89. Herrera died in 2022 at age 106 but not before finally achieving international recognition.
On those days I think I might be too old to paint, I remember Carmen Herrera and others like Sally Gabori, Harriet Powers and Hilma af Klimt. More galleries are beginning to show older women's work. Artsy.net recently wrote an article headlined "Why Old Women Have Replaced Young Men as the Art World's Darlings."
The time has come for us "late bloomers."
I will be posting about more older artists. You can find them under the Late Bloomers label to the right.