The Sisterhood of Paint Brushes
We Six, a group of 6 senior women in their 70s and 80s who met at the MV Senior Center art club and bonded during the pandemic --Wanda Lee, Carol Sidel and Shirley Stevens from Los Altos, Nora Mazzara and Pat Reid-Purt from Mountain View and Lynda Lumish from Palo Alto--paint in acrylics and pastels with subjects varying from landscapes to portraits to still life. Their friendship and artistic skills have grown together in the past six years resulting in a collection of artwork showcasing as a group at Los Altos Library running through May 31.
The group has a diverse ethnic and cultural background. Wanda grew up in a Chinese American family in Hawaii. Her father, an architect, led the way by painting in watercolor and drawing cartoons as hobbies. He taught Wanda how to draw horses by seeing geometric shapes and how to use visual perspective, and encouraged Wanda to take art class at the Honolulu Art Museum. After her retirement from San Francisco State University as a professor of counseling, Wanda realized art had been missing from her life and started taking art classes again.
Lynda started copying an art painting book her neighbor gifted her and attended Art and Design high school in Manhattan where she learned all the regular subjects but concentrated on art. She majored in advertising and her first job was as an art counselor at a day camp followed by newspapers advertising and eventually an art director for chains of department stores in New York and California.
Nora was born in New York City to Italian parents and an artistic family. She cited her sister and mother as early influence for the love of art and discovered her love for sculpture in high school starting with a recreation of Rodin’s The Thinker in clay. Nora was a professional nurse who lived in Florida for 15 years before moving to California while keeping art as part of her world along the way and studied sculpture, Chinese painting and ceramics.
Pat is a native San Franciscan who moved to Mountain View when she was 8. She attended University of San Francisco, lived in Washington before returning to Mountain View. Her father was a cartoonist and corresponded with Charles Shaw. Pat worked for an international publishing company and ran their west coast office. she enjoyed sketching, pained rocks and sold them at crafts stores.
Carol is descended from an Italian family and grew up in Worcester, MA. She was a research biochemist before her children were born then helped her husband’s consumer research business until retirement. Carol loved to paint and sketch as a child; she found the art class in retirement and joined the art club to continue her passion.
Shirley grew up in Santa Rosa, also in an Italian American family. Her interest in painting started with an art minor in college and she continued incorporating art in her career as an elementary school teacher for more than 30 years in Sunnyvale School district. Using image making in the writing process her students’ art and story became a book to keep. Once retired, a friend she
knew since 2 nd grade signed her for the art class at the Mountain View Senior Center, and the rest is history.
We Six have distinctive artistic styles. Wanda uses pastel and her passion is color and composition with the French Impressionists as her favorite. Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse and Thiebaud are her inspirations as she strives to capture the feeling of a piece in her painting. Lynda switched to acrylic painting from many years’ clay sculpture and her favorite subjects are portraits and pets as she loves illustrating her subjects by studying their eyes. Nora’s work often celebrates music, movement and connection. Her love of the accordion inspired many pieces featuring dancers and musicians. Pat began painting flowers, bugs and animas on rocks and made pet tombstones her specialty; she now enjoys painting local scenes, vacation memories, animals and subjects off kilter, rich in color, contrast and texture. Carol takes a photorealism approach using acrylics and focuses on landscapes from her travels and natural subjects. She strives for a three-dimensional feel for her painted objects and for her viewers to feel present in the scene. Shirley also enjoys painting from her travel photos being inspired by landscapes, English garden, wild animals and family pets.
The group treasure their friendship which they credit as the bond that holds all together. Lynda says, “Having my art friends at the senior center is important to me. I look forward to Wednesdays.” Their candid critique of each other’s art is taken in with warm friendship support. One of the women brings music to keep all calm and less noisy; someone else brings donuts and they get the best of another’s garden.
During the pandemic, We Six held weekly Zoom calls and had lunch at Shoup park to keep the group close. They have gone through aging, illness and death in the past few years and care for each other deeply. Nora lost a sister but feels she has gained five sisters from the group. The sisterhood of paint brushes continues to maintain a big purpose in life and sticks to their Wednesday painting sessions, rain or shine.
If you are looking for a place to paint with warm support, visit Mountain View Senior Center on Wednesday mornings, where you will find We Six, a group of women artists outdoor creating art, especially on sunny days.