An 88-year-old woman from Yorkshire, who had never created art before, has become an unexpected viral sensation and secured four upcoming exhibition slots after taking up drawing just six months ago.
From Family Photos to Gallery Walls
Christine Hazell, who lives with progressive memory loss in a 17th-century cottage in York, began drawing in May 2024. The idea came from her daughter, Gaby Higgs, who suggested her mother try copying old family photographs using coloured pencils and pads left behind by her children. Hazell's first subjects were her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the family dog, Kizzy.
Since that initial attempt, Hazell has produced an astonishing more than 200 drawings, working on new portraits daily for periods ranging from ten minutes to two hours. Her daughter began sending images of the artwork to her brother, Matthew Higgs, a respected curator and director of New York's White Columns gallery.
An Instinctive Artist Emerges
Matthew Higgs, who has championed artists like Jeremy Deller and outsider art for decades, was immediately struck by his mother's work. "It struck me that these were significant drawings by an elderly person who had never drawn before," he said. Despite her condition, which means she often no longer recognises her family, Hazell has developed a distinctive, untutored style.
"She has quickly acquired a distinctive style and an independent view of the world by translating photos into drawings," Higgs observed. He noted that Hazell deliberately edits her subjects, describing her role as to 'spoil' the perfection of a photograph by disrupting it in her drawing. This intuitive process has resulted in raw, emotionally powerful portraits that defy conventional technique.
Rapid Acclaim and Exhibition Schedule
When Higgs began sharing the drawings on his Instagram account, which has 65.3k followers, the response was swift and profound. The work attracted praise from high-profile figures including artist Tracey Emin, who commented, "Something so good going on here, and shows it’s never too late," and Pulitzer-winning critic Jerry Saltz.
This online success has translated into a remarkable real-world exhibition schedule. The first show, titled Different Faces, will feature 24 Yorkshire subjects and opens at Partisan in York on 17 December 2024, running until 1 March 2025. Florencia Clifford of Partisan described the art as "magical and moving – a freedom of expression without self-consciousness."
Further exhibitions are already scheduled: London's Studio Voltaire will show a group of drawings in July 2025, and The Blacksmith's Shop in East Yorkshire will include her work in its summer 2026 show. Finally, her drawings will cross the Atlantic to be exhibited at White Columns in New York.
For Matthew Higgs, his mother's late-life creative explosion is a powerful vindication of innate human creativity. "Allow someone the time, encouragement and resources to be creative and it will most likely happen," he said. As Christine Hazell continues to draw daily, gaining confidence and expanding her subjects to include musicians and actors, her story stands as a poignant testament that it is truly never too late to begin.
