Trade Your Pentax For Your Palette For A Change Of Pace, Some Tours Are Offering An Art Focus For Those Like To Paint Their Memories

Millie Briggs’ creative juices began to flow after she reached her mature years. At the same time, her wanderlust also took hold. So this late-blooming artist from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., combined her love of painting with travel.

“My husband and I sold our manufacturing business in 1975,” says Briggs, now 80. “I had taken watercolor classes years before, and after retiring, I got into painting workshops locally.”

One of Briggs’ instructors on Martha’s Vineyard also conducted workshops in the Bahamas. The fledgling artist signed up.

Since then, Briggs has returned many times to paint in the Bahamas. She also joined artist-led workshops as well as art-related tours and cruises to Mexico, northern Wisconsin, Colorado, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Morocco, Europe and most recently to Tahiti.

Just like Briggs, more and more Americans are finding their senior years an ideal time to explore their creativity and the world.

The art-and-travel mix is part of a larger trend, according to experts.

“Instead of believing they’ve reached the end of the line in their later years, people now are looking at the possibility of new beginnings,” says Connie Goldman, 64, an independent producer whose books and National Public Radio programs examine aging and creativity.

Once the children are gone and retirement approaches, they have time to explore their inner life.

“So they’re asking questions,” Goldman explains. “‘Who am I now? Who is the me inside me? What’s my place now that I’m in the home stretch?’ They’re exploring the passions and experiences inside themselves.”

It actually may become easier for people to tap into their creativity in later years.

The tremendous growth of courses and workshops in fine and applied arts - often geared specifically to seniors - has spurred them to exercise their creativity while on vacation.

Elderhostel, a flourishing nonprofit organization that links those 55 and older with low-cost educational programs, finds art courses extremely popular, according to spokeswoman Cady Goldfield. Elderhostel’s courses, which have no required reading or grades, take place at thousands of colleges, universities and other institutions in the United States and abroad.

Also thriving are special-interest companies, such as Hewitt Painting Workshops of San Diego, and A-1 Tours of Clearwater, Fla. Both offer artist-led tours and cruises. Dillman’s Creative Arts Foundation sponsors more than 60 workshops each year at Dillman’s Sand Lake Lodge in Fond du Lac, Wis.

Nonprofit centers for traditional applied arts, like the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C., draw 50-plus students. Individual artists leading workshops in the United States and abroad usually find that amateurs 50 and older are their most avid participants.

Some workshops and travel programs are appropriate for beginners, while others may be geared more toward those experienced in a particular medium. You’ll find some tours that are mostly sightseeing with a little time out for art, or others focusing intensely on art with few visits to traditional sights. So talk with the artist leading the program about his or her approach.

Art enhances a trip because it allows senior travelers to capture the scenes and experiences that impress them in a way that is uniquely their own.

“I paint for two reasons,” Briggs says. “First, because I see something I love and can’t resist finding out how I can put it on paper. And second, I do it to sell the paintings, although I try not to paint anything unless I like it.”

Briggs, who applies her entrepreneurial skills to her artwork, now operates a gallery on Martha’s Vineyard where she sells her works. She has published selfillustrated cookbooks and sold about 45,000 T-shirts on which her paintings are emblazoned.

But only a handful of senior artists care at all about whether they can market their works. “We aren’t talking about great art,” Goldman says, “but about personal expression and an opportunity to learn about yourself.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONTACTS Here’s how to contact organizations mentioned in the story, plus a few of the other companies offering trips for artists: -American Artist magazine, P.O. Box 1944, Marion, Ohio 43306; (800) 745-8922. Annual subscriptions $26.95; $36.95 outside United States and possessions. -An Artist’s Life, P.O. Box 567, Swampscott, Mass. 01907-3567; (617) 595-1173. Painting tours to Isle of Skye, Scotland, New England, Provence, France. -A-1 Tours, 2701 Sunset Point Road, Clearwater, Fla. 34619; (800) 677-9412. Painting tours as well as quilting, rug hooking and wildfowlcarving tours and cruises. -ArtTrek, 113 W. Phoenix Ave., Flagstaff, Ariz. 86001; (602) 774-9135. Drawing, painting, pastel, watercolors and other courses in the Grand Canyon region. -Art Trek, P.O. Box 807, Bolinas, Calif. 94924; (800) 786-1830. Watercolors and printmaking in France, some with choice of art, cooking or language classes. -Elderhostel, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. 02110-1941; (617) 426-7788. U.S. and international courses in a wide variety of fine and applied arts. -John C. Campbell Folk School, Route 1, Box 14A, Brasstown, N.C. 28902; (800) 365-5724. Painting and traditional crafts, plus music and dance. -Dillman’s Creative Arts Foundation, P.O. Box 98F, Lac du Flambeau, Wis. 54538; (715) 588-3143. Watercolor, oils and other arts. -Hewett Painting Workshops, P.O. Box 6980, San Diego, Calif. 92166-0980; (619) 222-4405. America’s first art-travel company, with trips in the United States and overseas. -Schooner Roseway, Yankee Schooner Cruises, P.O. Box 696, Camden, Maine. 04843; (800) 255-4449. Art and photo seminars aboard Maine coast windjammer.