Never too old to learn; Lovell artist fulfills dream

WORLAND – Lovell artist Bobbie Brown has always loved art but didn't receive any formal education in art until she was 65. At 65, after her husband died, Brown decided that her desire to create art needed to be fulfilled and she started taking classes at Northwest College.

"My husband died and I was sitting around doing nothing but eating and getting fat and thought that I need to do better than this and then I realized that I have a few options and I've always wanted to do art but I've never had much in formal instruction," Brown stated.

Brown started small just taking a couple classes at first but enjoyed the experience so much that she is now going full time and is excited by each new class she takes. "I went over there for watercolors first, I'm not sure why, accept that I have never really painted and I've always loved watercolors. As a general rule I like the look of watercolors so that's where I started. As I got into it, I realized that I wanted to learn to draw better. They have a good drawing teacher too. So I started taking drawing and the next thing that I knew I was into it with all four feet, taking everything in sight, Brown said.

Brown stated that continued learning is something that runs in her blood as her mother, a master teacher of remedial reading, continued to publish and teach until she passed away. She hopes that the family trait will continue on through her children and grandchildren. "If you don't progress, you regress. If you don't move forward you're losing ground. It's much like singing, if you sing a tone, you have to keep building and growing that tone, or the tone just naturally goes away. It's much the same with your life. I think that you have to keep learning and keep growing and keep finding new goals or you basically become stagnant," she said.

Due to several allergies Brown avoided oil painting for quite a while until she was talked into giving it a try but once trying it she knew that it was what she wanted to do. "I'd avoided oil paints. I was allergic to so much. I'm allergic to a lot of things; fingernail polish, you name it. So I always felt like painting might not be healthy but I got talked into trying it out because these days (oil paints) are much safer than they used to be and I have not had any trouble with paints and from the minute that I started, it's been like whoa, you can't hold me back, I love it," Brown stated. "Painting was just like coming home," she added.

Brown plans to become a working painter, with a preference for portraits of which she has already done a couple. She has also done a book cover for her daughter-in-law and author Beth Elaine Brown and has a painting of the Lovell Sugar Factory that will be displayed in the Cheyenne Museum January 2017 – March 2017 as part of the Governor's Capital Art Exhibit.

Recently, Brown was contracted by the PTO (Parent Teachers Organization) and Worland East Side Elementary School to do a large mural in the library. "This is my first large sized professional piece," she said.

After the all school viewing Monday morning Brown decided that she needed to do a couple touch-ups to the mural explaining that she could work on it forever and continue to find things that she wants to change. "There is a point that you have to draw a line and I'm still learning that. I have a teacher that is real good about walking over and saying, 'stop Bobbie, now'," she added.

While art has always been a part of her life, she also loved music and chose to get her degree in vocal performance and double majored in music education at the University of the Pacific and Delta College. "I've always drawn and cartooned in high school. I did cartoons for the high school paper. I was also interested in music, so I had to make a choice at one point and I chose music, mainly because my sister chose art and we were very competitive and it seemed instinctively a healthy choice," Brown joked.

As Brown continues on this new adventure in her life, she is positive about the future and looking forward to what is to come. "I've had some really positive experiences and good feedback," Brown said. "I have always had a strong feeling that I wanted to be an eccentric old lady like my mother and never stop learning," she added.