Art of Aging: Centenarian Artist

BRYN MAWR, Pa. -- At 100-years-old, artist Frieda Lefeber is enjoying her first solo art exhibition.

Her exhibition is a retrospective of 65 landscape and portrait paintings now on display at Rosemont College.

She says, "I'm very critical about myself...when I see it on the wall I say, 'did I do this?"

Frieda started painting in 1991, when she was 76-years-old.

"I painted nonstop. Actually, sometimes I would forget myself and even paint until 4 o'clock in the morning," said Frieda.

She started taking classes at Rosemont College and then went to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she earned a certificate at the age of 83.

Pat Nugent who is the Curator of the Lawrence Gallery at Rosemont College says, "She's fun, she's chic and she's all that, but she's enormously self-disciplined."

Frieda is a holocaust survivor who fled to the U.S. in 1939. She worked more than 5 decades as a nurse and retirement has not slowed her down.

Frieda says, "I paint a lot. I cook for the family, and I do the shopping. I study Hebrew and keep my brain occupied."

She published her autobiography at the age of 88.

"And now she's writing an addendum because there are 12 years since she wrote that," said Pat.

And she prides herself on packing every day to its fullest.

"If you have too much time on your hands, you think you back and feel sorry about yourself... and this way you don't." said Frieda.

You can view Frieda Lefeber: Her Life and Her Art" at Lawrence Gallery at Rosemont College through April 7th.