The golden years for artists' work

Betty Fraley was bored at home, feeling stir-crazy, when she decided at the age of 75 to take an art class at the Northshore Senior Center.

Now 84, Fraley took her hobby to the next level when she entered some of her pieces in an art show for artists 70 and older.

And won first place.

"I was thrilled out of my skin when I saw I had won a ribbon," said Fraley, of Woodinville. "Painting is what keeps me going. I have a ball doing it."

Fraley is among two dozen 70-and-up artists who submitted their work to Madison House Retirement Community in Kirkland and who will have their pieces displayed as part of SummerFest, an art and wine festival in downtown Kirkland.

Fraley will be among the more than 100 artists whose work will be on display today and Sunday as part of the annual art festival in Marina Park. Madison House, which helps sponsor SummerFest, has been thinking of holding a seniors-only art show for several years, said Kellie Moeller, marketing director for the retirement home.

Moeller also sits on the Kirkland Senior Council, a group of community members appointed by the City Council to look at issues affecting residents age 50 and older.

More than 60 pieces of art were submitted, and about half of those will be shown at SummerFest.

The entire collection will be on display at Madison House from Monday until July 23, when a wine reception will be held at 3 p.m.

"We frankly have been overwhelmed by the number of responses," Moeller said. "It's been such an incredible blessing to get to know the artists."

Some artists, such as Carolyn Doane, 80, have been painting much of their life.

Others, such as Fraley, picked up the hobby in their later years.

The senior artists, inspired by many themes, used oils, acrylics, watercolor, pencil and ink in their work.

There's Harry Hadlock's sumi-e pieces, which are done in black ink on rice paper. Hadlock, 82, who lives in Redmond, drew inspiration from his days as an Air Force pilot during the Korean War, when he spent time in Japan.

His "Spring Again" depicts delicate cherry blossoms in a vase, and "Pot-N-Pines" shows pine branches in a pot.

"Old Man," Pegge Burgh's painting of a melancholic man with deep eyes and a graying beard, won a second-place award. Burgh, 87, who lives at Madison House, started painting in her 40s, and it grew into a full-fledged hobby after she retired.

"I love to paint sea and landscapes and occasionally character studies like the 'Old Man,' " Burgh said.

Parkinson's disease has left a tremble in Hugh McArthur's hands, but his love of painting has persisted.

The 77-year-old from Woodinville always had a flare for design, which he used during his career in the advertising business.

But it wasn't until he retired that he began expressing his creativity using acrylics, pastels and oil paintings, often in a colorful Southwest theme.

McArthur's "The Chef" and "Sun Flowers" are on display.

"I'm working on a new technique where I hook my cane over the canvas to steady my hand," McArthur said. "Then you sketch what's in your mind's eye."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com