It is all too easy to fall prey to negative messages around pursuing a career change late in life, least of all a creative pursuit. While evidence is plentiful that taking creativity seriously benefits ageing, there are also countless examples of well-regarded artists who started their practice late in life. Here’s a list of just five.
Grandma Moses started painting at 78
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, also known as Grandma Moses, was an American folk artist who began painting at 78 years old. She only picked up a paintbrush out of desperation after arthritis forced her to give up on her needlework. Within two years, her work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Her depictions of rural American life became a sensation. Moses painted until her death at 101, completing over 1500 pieces. Her work has appeared in the White House, and is a regular feature of US greeting cards.
Frank McCourt won his Pulitzer for his debut book after 60
Frank McCourt was a teacher in New York City. He would write casually in his spare time, but it wasn’t until his retirement that his wife encouraged him to make a more exerted effort. His writing became Angela’s Ashes, published in 1996 and winning the Pulitzer Prize. The book became a film, and two more best-selling memoirs followed.
McCourt was glad to have started his literary career late. He suggested his age gave him insight into his younger years that wouldn’t have been available to him at any other time. Nevertheless, committing to writing professionally later in life scared him, and he found creative writing classes intimidating. The hard work paid off. McCourt’s books were on most bookshelves in the late 1990s.
Elizabeth Jolley faced decades of rejection before enjoying a rich career
Australian novelist Elizabeth Jolley was no spring chicken when she broke through with her first novel Palomino. She was 53, but had spent decades submitting to publishers without success. She worked as a teacher and in hospitals and had tried to be a professional writer for decades but faced rejection.
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“It was a very slow, painful thing,” she once said. “I’ve had as many as 39 rejections in one year. But everything that was rejected has now been accepted. Some pieces I reworked. Others are just as they were. I think that often the writer is writing things that are not acceptable because perhaps the writer is aware of things in life around him that publishers’ editors feel the reader is not ready for.”
Publishers often refused Jolley’s work because they felt it was too strange or uncommercial. Eventually, Jolley’s style would become her signature, and she was one of Australia’s most celebrated novelists through the 1980s.
Bill Traylor found artistic success at 85 years old
Bill Traylor was born into slavery in the mid-19th century and spent the vast majority of his life working on farms in Alabama. He drew pictures of his life on discarded pieces of cardboard or anything he could handle. At 85, homeless and destitute, his work was discovered by another artist, Charles Shannon, who started collecting and promoting his drawings.
Traylor is now recognised as a significant folk artist, and his work is profiled at the Smithsonian and exhibited in major US museums. He wasn’t alive long enough to enjoy the full impact of his legacy, but from 85 until his death 10 years later he was able to see his work exhibited, recognised and applauded by the professional arts world.
Barbara Holborow enjoyed a second career after retirement
Much like McCourt, Australian magistrate Barbara Holborow could’ve enjoyed a lazy retirement. Instead, after a long and fierce career in law, she turned her experience into best-selling books. As an advocate for young people and judicial reform, she became a recognisable public figure.
Her books, which all centred on her experience inside the Australian judicial system, became best-sellers. They also helped establish her platform as an advocate, which assisted with bringing about major reforms in juvenile law. Her first book was published when she was 66 years old.
