Creating things became what kept a person going.
Many such examples have been left to us. Here I write about three people.
Winston Churchill ― taking up painting at 40
In 1915, during the First World War, Churchill was forced out of his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. He was held responsible for the failure of the Gallipoli campaign.
It was in that period, at the age of 40, that he began to paint. He had no art education. Over the following fifty years or so, he left more than 500 works.
Churchill is said to have gone through periods of deep low mood. Perhaps painting was a comfort to him then. His thoughts on it are gathered in Painting as a Pastime, an essay he wrote in the 1920s.
Henri Matisse ― scissors, after surgery
In 1941, at the age of 72, Matisse had surgery for duodenal cancer. The operation succeeded, but his strength declined, and it became hard for him to stand at the easel to paint in oils as he had before.
Spending most of the day in bed or in a wheelchair, Matisse arrived at the cut-out. Assistants painted sheets of paper with color, and he cut shapes from them himself with scissors.
The range in which his body could move had narrowed. Within it, finding a new way of working led to the major works of his last years.
Yayoi Kusama ― to keep making was her way of living
In 1977, Yayoi Kusama admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo. From then on she lived a life of going from the hospital to a nearby studio to work by day, then returning to her hospital room at night.
In her autobiography, Kusama writes that she faces pain, anxiety plus fear every day, and that the only way to ease them is to keep making art. She also wrote that by following the single thread of art, she had at last found a path that let her live.
Kusama died in August 2026 at the age of 97. Until her last years, she kept working almost every day.
Not a question of skill
What the three share is that, before any question of whether the paintings were excellent as works, painting was an act that let each of them carry on with their days.
Churchill in the period when he lost his post, Matisse when his body could no longer move freely, Kusama while living with illness: each kept moving their hands.
Making color plus form can do that. What Mermaid nao wants to deliver, too, is not a painting that is merely beautiful on the wall, but a piece that helps you remember your own outline. Each piece is delivered framed.
[References]
America's National Churchill Museum: Winston Churchill The Artist / Passion for Painting
Draw Paint Academy: Sir Winston Churchill - Painter and Prime Minister
Irohani Art (Japanese): What Matisse gained through cut-outs, a free way of creating reached after cancer
Bijutsu Techo (Japanese): Ten ways to enjoy the cut-outs of Matisse
Nikkei (Japanese): Yayoi Kusama dies; an unyielding spirit, and the studio she kept commuting to from the hospital
Katei Gaho (Japanese): Yayoi Kusama, the appeal of works that change between self-obliteration plus self-love
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