My mother, amateur artist Magda-Maria Pentsa, was born in 1933. We all – both adults and children – call her Mamma. She has raised four children, and at present, she has 17 grandchildren.
She lived with her husband for nearly 58 years. After such a long life together, her husband’s passing to the heavenly paths was very painful for Mamma. She became depressed and even had thoughts of death.
Mamma has always wanted to paint, but with a large family, she never had the time. I brought her wallpaper rolls and acrylic paints from the hardware store and put them in front of her, telling her that now she finally had time to paint. Since she has impaired vision, it took her nearly a year to gather the courage to pick up the brush. But once she started, she could no longer be stopped. 🙂
By now, she has painted over 900 paintings. She keeps a strict record herself, and all the works are numbered.
Mamma has many very good works, although there are also a few failures. She draws inspiration from everything – when she sees a beautiful image on TV, she quickly sketches it with a black marker, which later becomes a colourful painting. However, most of the time, she paints from her imagination, her own thoughts and ideas.
She will soon turn 92. She listens to audiobooks in the background and paints tirelessly. She has been painting for almost 10 years.
Painting has brought a spark of life back into her eyes. 🙂
In April 2017, the ERR program Ringvaade happened to discover Mamma.