Painting pictures, painting with words
<p>Veldonna Armstrong holds one of her paintings at her Garden Plaza apartment on Thursday. Armstrong, 77, started painting three months ago, hoping to reach out to people through her art to brighten their day.</p>
<p>Veldonna Armstrong, 77, reads her poem, "America," before Garden Plaza's Veterans Day event on Thursday.</p>
<p>Garden Plaza resident Veldonna Armstrong sifts through poems to read.</p>
<p>Many of Veldonna Armstrong's paintings are photographs from her past including a painting of her riding her first horse, shown here.</p>
POST FALLS — In just a few strokes of a paintbrush, Veldonna Armstrong is transported to wherever her mind’s eye takes her.
"I can be any place I want to be when I paint it,” the 77-year-old Garden Plaza resident said. “If I want to be in the mountains, if I want to be out in the woods hunting elk, I can do it. Because I’ll tell you; when you can’t walk, then you need to do something else.”
Although her mobility is limited, only the sky is the limit for her imagination. Armstrong caught the painting fever about three months ago and has since tapped into a well of talent. In a short time, she's painted dozens of acrylic or oil images, including autumnal forests, deep green streams, a bright seascape, a rooster, portraits of the horses she raised in Sandpoint and colorful sunsets, to name a few.
"I never even tried to paint before," the retired registered nurse said. "I've been coloring in the adult coloring books for quite a while, but suddenly I decided that I would like to try painting, and it was much more rewarding for me."
Her paintings are whatever she wants them to be, following the advice of the late big-haired and mellow-voiced Bob Ross.
"I watch him all the time on my little iPad," Armstrong said, grinning as she looked over a few paintings displayed near her apartment. "And I got a book on how to paint in 10 easy lessons. It said I should paint a rooster, so that's where the rooster comes from."
Armstrong uses photographs as inspiration, but she also comes up with many ideas on her own. The photos she took when she and her late husband, Paul, traveled the western U.S. when he worked for the railroad.
"Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Utah, Arizona, and his headquarters was in Omaha, Neb.," she said. "We were all over the place."
Armstrong's creative abilities don't end with canvas and palette. She has been writing poetry and producing new works frequently since 2004. Her poems lift up the spirit with words of faith and peace and vivid imagery of nature's beauty. A powerful theme in her writing is her patriotism and love for America; Paul and four of her grandsons served in the military and she wrote a few poems to share with the Garden Plaza community for Veterans Day.
Several of her poems are compiled in a book, "Words to Live By," which can be found at Garden Plaza.
"Every morning when she writes one, she'll make copies so she can recite them to some of our residents in the morning. She says she wants to cheer them up. It's something happy for them and they get excited about it, so she likes to spread her poems and her paintings," said Jessie Stevenson, moving coordinator for Garden Plaza of Post Falls. "I think it's amazing. It's nice to know that even though people think when you get older, you stop doing things, but she's actually gained more freedom being here and being able to try new things.
"I think she's so sweet," Stevenson added. "It's amazing to me that she just started (painting) and she found a love."
Armstrong said she loves knowing her work touches people's hearts and brightens their days.
"It means so much to me. If I can bring just one person closer to God, that's my hope, that's my wish," she said. "I'm just a plain, ordinary person. And like I say, if anything in my artwork or my poetry can reach out and touch someone, that makes me feel really good."