94-year-old painter remains passionate

ABC NEWS (Australia)

After 80 years in Australia's arts industry, Fremantle painter June Boase Weller is as passionate as the first day she picked up a paint brush.  At the age of 94, she's showing no signs of slowing down, using new technology to continue her craft.

Transcript

00:00 Over the past 80 years, there's rarely been a day June Bosweller hasn't picked up a paintbrush.

00:08 It's always just been such a pleasure, such an important thing in my life.

00:14 It doesn't matter what day goes by, somehow I've got to draw in that day.

00:21 The 94-year-old pioneered the practice of art therapy in Australia, starting with returned

00:27 World War II soldiers at Melbourne's Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.

00:32 They would paint with me before their treatment and then paint with me after their treatment.

00:40 And this was the beginning of OT, occupational therapy, art therapy.

00:47 In the 1950s and 60s, she went on to design wrapping paper prints and logos for Maya.

00:54 They were looking for an artist to draw up new logos for the store and new papers and

01:02 they were going to use art much more than they had before.

01:07 A recent retrospective exhibition celebrated not only Miss Bosweller's colourful life,

01:13 but also her legacy as an Australian artist.

01:16 And while her eyesight's not as sharp as it once was, she's still challenging herself.

01:22 Moving from canvases to digital art.

01:26 I feel as though I am painting with oils again.

01:30 I am painting with watercolour.

01:33 So that part of my life hasn't been taken away from me.

01:37 For me, art had become life.

01:41 And without art, I don't think I would have lived as long.

01:46 A life lived in full colour.

01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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