90-year-old NYC painter shares 30 years of paintings
A Manhattan woman never had a gallery show, but over the course of 30 years, she painted nearly every day.
Now, her daughter is helping her art find a new life in the homes of friends and strangers.
"It comes from somewhere inside"
Some lives are measure in minutes. Some are measured in brushstrokes.
"It feels internal to me, which I like, too. It comes from somewhere inside," said Barbara Quart, 90.
Quart has painted nearly every day since she retired from teaching literature 30 years ago. She doesn't paint for money or fame, but because the moment called to her.
"The birds were singing and insects are buzzing and the herbs smell delicious and the water is glittering," she said, "and you're trying to convey all of that somehow, and it's a joyful thing."
There are hundreds of paintings of glowing ponds, distant skies and quiet trees that changed with the seasons of her life.
Until now, no one had ever seen these paintings, but everything changed recently when Quart was diagnosed with cancer.
Suddenly, the paintings weren't just paintings anymore. They were her vision of the world.
Quart's daughter, Alissa Quart, has now found a new way for her mother's joy to bloom in other homes.
"When my mom got a diagnosis, that was really hard, and I knew she had 400 paintings," Alissa Quart said. "I said, 'What beautiful thing could I bring together around these glowing images that I knew my mother had?'"
Some she's selling, others are being gifted.
"It makes me happy that people want it"
The mother and daughter recently took a quiet pilgrimage to see where some of Barbara Quart's brushstrokes have settled.
One homeowner now has two of her paintings.
"This is a house with so much on its walls. That they chose these two to add is lovely to me," Barbara Quart said.
Each visit an affirmation that her art still speaks, even in someone else's space.
"It makes me happy that people want it, you know? That they see something in it that gives them something. I love that," Barbara Quart said.
She painted to capture beauty, and her daughter is now sharing that beauty to preserve something more – the connection they hold.
"It has been a hard time, but it's been sort of a magical time, too, I feel like, a little bit. Do you feel that way?" Alissa Quart said.
"Absolutely true. Absolutely true," Barbara Quart said.
The brushstrokes may be Barbara's, but the story they tell is now shared. Alissa Quart said anyone interested in her mother's art can contact her on Instagram.
Steve Overmyer joined CBS News New York in February of 2011 as a sports anchor and reporter. He hosts Sports Update every weekend on CBS News New York and New York 55.
