Energetic senior doesn't let her age dictate when she stops painting

People in their 80s usually attend art openings. However, on July 13, Genevieve Freres, 87, will have her artwork on display at the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights, where she resides.

However, this story is about more than an exhibit. It is about an energetic senior has not let age dictate when to put down her brushes.

Freres, whose favorite artist is Thomas Kinkade, paints almost every day. Her art is not for sale because she says, "They're like my babies." Her specialty is country landscapes, wildlife, and cozy cottages.

"I especially enjoy doing scenery," she said. "I just love to create. I'll go out into the country and travel around and get ideas."

Born Genevieve Blameuser in 1920, she spent most of her life in Skokie. However, she was first introduced to art when she was in the seventh grade at St. Mary Springs Academy in Fond du Lac, Wis., where she attended boarding school. Freres was raised by her maternal grandparents after losing both of her parents at the age of 6.

"My grandparents noticed I liked art," said Freres, who paints in acrylics but has also worked with oil, watercolor, pastels, and pen-and-ink. "They said, 'We better have that little one take some lessons at school.'"

Freres married Math "Yie" Freres in 1940 and raised four children, who still have her paintings dating back to 1933. A few of her children and grandchildren have inherited Freres' talent.

"My son is a professional artist," said Freres. "I have a daughter who gets into it, too. My one son just can't do it and has no interest in it. My mother and father died when I was young, but I am told mother drew her horse very well. It's a talent that has been passed down and runs in the family."

Freres' youngest son, Greg Freres of Elk Grove Village, has made a living with his artistic skills working in the game design business and creating illustrations on pinball machines. His original pinball artwork includes The Harlem Globetrotters, The Rolling Stones, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. These originals, along with a host of other pinball creations, were recently displayed at the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mount Vernon.

"I couldn't believe it; pinball art in a museum that houses paintings by Andrew Wyeth, Marie Cassat and Winslow Homer. Now that's good company," said Greg.

Freres' granddaughter, Lindsey, 21, is now majoring in fine art at Columbia College Chicago and is continuing the next generation of art that her grandmother started over 70 years ago.

"As a little girl I would go to my grandmother's apartment and see her easel and special stool," Lindsey said. "I would smell the oil paints and sit at the easel and be in awe and amazed at what she did. I knew then it was what I wanted to do."

Unlike her grandmother, Lindsey prefers abstract art. However, she does have a favorite Freres' painting - "It's one of a little church ... the colors are so beautiful" - and is impressed that she created so much artwork as a young girl.

Greg is also impressed by his mother's talent, although he was not fully aware of it until he was an adult.

"I had no idea that some of the artwork in my mom's attic was hers," he said. "When I was growing up, I found those paintings but never asked. I thought they were pictures that my parents had retired to the attic."

Now, older and wiser, Greg said, "I can only hope to be painting when I'm her age."