FITCHBURG — A room full of fellow residents at The Highlands Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation gathered on Friday to honor and quiz local artist in residence Ann Howe, who held court, answering questions about her paintings and thanking those who took a minute to acknowledge her lifelong love of art.
A self-taught artist who started painting at the age of 5, Howe and her artistic achievements were celebrated as part of The Highlands’ June Resident Spotlight.
She spoke about some of her paintings, which were on display, describing her inspiration or techniques at the prompting of her daughter Donna. Reminiscing about how her mother got them all started with crayons at an early age, one of her daughters began to cry, to which her mother said, “Aw, don’t do that.”
“Those chickens lived up the street,” she said of two paintings she did of chickens. “I used to drive up there and take their picture and decided to do a painting of them. I love animals, any animals.”
Her daughter, pointed out that she had won an award for a painting she did of the State House in Boston in a Christmas card contest. “She designed it and won second place.”
Ann Howe said she used a variety of techniques and mediums, with her favorite being acrylic paints, as oil paints, while nice to work with, present a difficult cleanup problem. She also said that while sometimes she would base a painting off a photograph, other times it would be from scenes around her or straight from her imagination.
“I just love to paint and draw,” Howe said.
“She’s done a lot,” said her son Domenic, pointing out one painting of the many assembled, of a cat staring at a squirrel through a window and the squirrel looking right back. He said someone had taken a photo of the scene, it might have even been him, and his mother said, “I’m going to paint that,” and she produced a wonderful painting of the two animals eyeing each other through a pane of glass.
One painting she did when she was young shows herself as a child standing at a train station with her grandmother. She had grown up in Pennsylvania, and she said her and her “had taken the train to Philadelphia. My grandmother came and took me for the day.” And Howe immortalized the moment in a stylized painting of the two of them waiting for the train.
“Oh she loved it,” she said was her grandmother’s response to the painting.
Howe later moved to Leominster, where they raised her family of five children.
Many of her paintings are kept at the homes of her children, who rotate some of them in her room at The Highlands, sometimes according to the time of the year, with seasonally appropriate photos. It was suggested at the gathering that some of her paintings should be displayed on the walls at The Highlands, beyond just in her own room, which got a round of applause.
She had a still life she had done, of sewing materials, which she entitled, “Mending Time,” and it was “dedicated to a mother how serves with loving hands and heart,” which got both Anne and Donna weeping.
“Art has taken up a lot of my life and I enjoy it,” said Howe. “I thank God that he gave me the gift,” she said, then adding, “I want to thank you all for coming.”
Mayor Sam Squailia presented Howe with a commendation from the City of Fitchburg, recognizing her artistic achievements.
Looking with appreciation at all the paintings on display at The Highlands, Squailia said, “It’s just a lifetime of art I see.”
“Some of these are kind of old, I’m old too,” said Howe, who is 92.
Howe’s daughter Donna said her mother used to hold exhibitions of her paintings, selling some off, and reserving some as too near and dear to the heart to sell. She also taught many other people how to paint over the years.
“Beautiful,” said Bill O’Connor, director of business development for The Highlands, about all of Howe’s collected artwork. “She’s an amazing person, with an amazing family. … We’re just so proud to have her as one of our residents.”