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14 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | NOVEMBER 2015 Continued on following page By Laurie Larson Sometimes when we move into Four Seasons, magic happens. It must be magic. How else can we explain how six people, each one an artist, discovered their talent only after they moved here? Or is it the beauty we are surrounded by? Soaring mountains, endless azure skies, huge puffy white clouds, dazzling sunrises and fiery sunsets enrich our springs and summers while slate gray skies with menacing dark clouds promising torrents of rain or a powdering of snow enhance our winters. These must touch an artist's soul. Or could it be the wind? Playful or fierce, welcome or infuriating, cooling, bracing or tempestuous, it affects us all. Does it blow ideas toward us and swirl inspiration around us? Maybe it's all three. And it seems like magic. Of course, what seems magical is really a combination of many things including hard work, persistence, vision and opportunity. In one of my frequent "this time I'm really going to get fit" moods, I asked a new friend if she would walk with me. She agreed and we shared many pleasurable rambles, often using the walking trails we have at Four Seasons. One favorite route ended with a trudge up a hill which left me breathing hard and needing a brief rest. Thank goodness there was a bench where we could perch for a bit. We would sit, catching our breath, chatting, and gazing out at green fields filled with tall grass, an occasional tree, and those beautiful mountains in the distance. One day she told me she had joined a drawing class taught in the Lodge. She pulled out her iPhone and showed me photos of some pencil drawings she had done of the scene spread out below us. Impressed, I asked her how many years she had been drawing. Her answer blew me away. She had never drawn before. Never taken a class, never drawn, never doodled, never thought about drawing, nothing, nada. I could not believe it. On some level, I still can't. How amazing! Surely she was an anomaly. Curious and fascinated, I decided to find out. So I asked this talented friend, Micki Rosen, if she would get in touch with her drawing teacher Rob Kelman and ask him if there were others like her in his classes. And amazingly, she came back with five other names Rob had given her. I asked Micki to help me do the interviews necessary to satisfy my curiosity and possibly write an article. She agreed and we began. First we spoke with Rob. An art teacher for 39 years, he was not terribly surprised at finding these six students in his classes. Not only are most people living here retired, with more unstructured time than they've had before, but also the atmosphere at Four Seasons, with so many residents sharing Hidden Talents Surface In The Golden Years Above: Artwork by Micki Rosen