Why Creative People Never Really Get Old (And How to Join Them)

The secret to feeling young over 50 is to find creative passion

Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

A few years ago, I would've been in awe and a little nervous. The way I’d feel going to a snooty cocktail party. All designer clothes and precarious heels.

But these days, I'm excited and curious when I step into a gallery or an artist’s studio. It’s a party where I can be myself and speak from my heart.

Because I share the passion for being creative.

Last month saw me lapping up a lot of art.

The settings differed:

• A major gallery with famous international works. Lauded exhibition. Paid entry. Frames are heavy. Artists are long gone.

• A local state annual exhibition. Free to all. Across the city, often in the artist’s home. Artists are there to chat.

In both settings, there are beautiful works, full of colour, mystery, and light. The audiences drink them in. And the spirit of play, of curiosity, of excitement is thick in the air.

But the added joy of being with the living artists is that I’m free to probe. To learn.

I ask questions:

• Why do you do this?

• What inspires you?

• How much patience does it need?

• Do you know what you’re doing when you start?

And they speak to me, assuming I’m an artist too. They explain their technique. They’re eager to share. They love bringing others into their worlds.

One is drawing a child’s face with exquisite detail. Trained in a classical realism tradition. She started art later in life. Her engagement is infectious.

Another has flown whisper-like silk clouds at the water’s edge and photographed them. They have deep symbolic meaning for her family and honour indigenous women from the past. She tells a painful story, but the art is transcendental.

Another is a famous older artist, who, even here with the public milling around him, is working on something new. His warm handshake welcomes me.

As we leave, I notice how calm and contented I feel.

I breathe deeply. I walk taller. My mind is brimming with ideas, colours, shapes, textures, and possibilities.

I’m a part of this creative world. Not an observer. I share their energy.

What lingers with me for days afterwards is their excitement and vitality. They’ve tapped into a vein of life that feeds them. They gain more life by doing this.

It’s what creative expression can do. Engage you better with the lifestream flowing within you.

My Creative Class of Artists Over 50

This year, I joined art classes for folks over 50. I wanted to be part of a community, rather than painting from home.

Each week, I experience the same joy, loss of time, and lightness of being when we amateurs gather to paint.

There’s trepidation but zero pretension.

Just focus and play.

Dirty fingers, paint splotches, quiet chatter.

Sometimes silence for an hour.

A few have taken classes for several years now.

Others are new, tentative, self-critical, and doubting. But letting go of a lot each week.

All are encouraging and, in my book, courageous.

All are artists.

And sometimes the art we produce takes my breath away. It’s exhibition-worthy.
And does get shown and sold.

But even more inspiring is the energy and enthusiasm in the air. The sense of a group of people feeling alive together.

Like those first few days at school as five-year-olds.

So many possibilities, new worlds to enter. New books, new materials.

Curiosity. Challenge. Growth.

Permission to experiment.

It’s this feeling we share that’s the true art.

My Writing Circle: Where Fears Go to Die

The same energy transformation happens in our writing group.

We meet each week online to share our work, get feedback, and support each other.

The main joy: showing up and being seen.

It’s a quiet, safe space. So secrets and shame and fears get heard. And lose their power over us.

Self-doubt dissolves through encouragement. Tentative voices become strong and clear. Forgotten dreams are dusted off and pursued.

Our true voices may have been long buried, but come back to life here. And the powerful words start to emerge. Decades of life experience pour onto the page.

Stories full of hope and promise.

Small sketches of daily life.

Brave revelations.

Curious forays.

Big leaps of faith and vulnerability.

Excitement builds for what lies ahead.

Like artists, we writers go through periods of doubt, experiment, challenge and delight. And we feel ourselves transform.

The group holds us. And we take the next step boldly.

This doesn’t feel like aging.

The Age-Defying Power of Creative Passion

Creative energy doesn't age—it regenerates. And there’s no time limit on it.

And passion for anything fills you with life. No matter how many years you’ve stacked up till now.

Creative challenges keep your mind sharp and your spirit strong, according to research. Each time we try something new, we encourage new neural connections to grow.

As psychiatrist Norman Doidge said in “The Brain that Changes Itself,

We must be learning if we are to feel fully alive, and when life, or love, becomes too predictable and it seems like there is little left to learn, we become restless—a protest, perhaps, of the plastic brain when it can no longer perform its essential task…

When young and growing, we’re constantly learning and adapting. This doesn’t have to stop at any age.

Youth sparkles in the eyes of my artist friends. Creative conversations make me come alive. My brain cells are possibly growing!

And when creative people discuss their work, I feel a kinship with them. Even if they lived centuries ago, it’s a common language. I nod along to the words that I would use myself today.

What I’ve learned

Creative possibilities are open to us all.

Age has little to do with it.

The creative medium has little to do with it.

You could be a sculptor, a musician, a chef, a gardener or a writer.

What matters is the absorption and flow you experience. And the delight it brings.

Here’s what I know:

• You already belong in a creative space.

• A beginner's enthusiasm is as valuable as expert technique.

• Art is about expression, not perfection. Every master was once a beginner.

• Your unique perspective matters precisely because it's yours.

• Ordinary people create extraordinary things.

• Accomplished creatives struggle with doubt just like you.

• Creativity is a practice, not a destination.

• Courage is contagious in creative groups.

• Shared struggles normalize the creative journey.

The Invitation: Step into the Creative Light

From feeling like an impostor to feeling like you belong. This transformation is open to you when you step into a creative community.

You don't need permission to be creative. It’s your nature, even if it was squashed or questioned earlier in your life.

Here, your age is an asset, not an obstacle. You have less to lose now.

Creative energy is renewable and contagious.

Community accelerates both learning and healing. It moves us from isolation to connection.

It's never too late to feel young again through creative passion.

The challenge: Where will you find your creative tribe? What gallery will you visit? What writing circle will you join? What artist studio will remind you that creativity isn't about age—it's about being alive?

The artist in that studio didn't ask my age before showing me her latest painting.

The writers in my circle don't preface their work with apologies about starting late.

They're too busy creating, too alive with possibility, too young in spirit to worry about the number of candles on their last birthday cake.

That energy is waiting for you too.