Age is just a number for artist, 87, who teaches painting out of retirement home

At 87, Joyce Anderson still finds joy in painting and teaching others who come to her retirement home to learn the art form.

"Here, they just overwhelm me. They're just wonderful," she said.

Anderson and her students held an art show Sunday afternoon at the River Ridge Retirement Residence, to display the best of their work.

Though most of her students come from outside the retirement home, where she has lived since 2013, Anderson says a lot of her students are fellow River Ridge residents.

"A lot of them didn't paint, didn't do anything until they were 95 years old," she said.

"I was surprised that they would do that, and they were surprised at themselves. It's a very good outlet for them."

Anderson has been teaching art since the 1970s, and her work has been shown in different galleries around Winnipeg, including the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She has been painting for most of her life, but never trained formally.

"It was something like a craving to me, and it just kept coming and coming," she said.

At River Ridge, Anderson says she feels like her work is appreciated.

"Here, they notice my work. Before, people never noticed, just maybe people that wanted me to donate paintings, and that's the only people that wanted my paintings," she said.

Her students, one of whom is as young as 12, definitely notice her.

Linda Dyck has been taking painting classes with Anderson for more than three decades.

"She's really inspiring. She starts off by teaching you just the basics like colour and what brushes to use and how to do shapes and that. And from there, she lets you do what you want to do," she said.

Dyck says the classes are like therapy for her.

"It's big therapy, I think, for anybody who takes a class or who does painting regularly," she said.

"We all feel better when we've painted. It feeds your soul."