At 97 this CT artist is displaying a lifetime of artwork for the first time in Shelton

At 97-years-old, she’s having her artistic debut.

Jacqueline Berg, of Shelton, who spent most of her life raising five children and working for her husband’s advertising agency in Stamford, is having the first art exhibit of her life, “A Life Worth Painting” at the Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton.

“It’s still is a huge surprise to me,” said Berg. “It never occurred to me to have an exhibit. I was overwhelmed with surprise and pleasure.”

“She said this was one of the greatest thrills of her life,” Plumb Library director Joan Stokes said. “Imagine that.”

The exhibit of nearly 40 of her works includes paintings, drawings and pen-and-ink works. It opened earlier this month and will be on view through Dec. 11.

“I never thought of myself as a serious artist,” Berg said. “It was mostly writing copy, doing layouts.” She had done cartooning in high school and took a drawing class in college but only began to dabble in art classes at Silvermine Gallery in New Canaan when she was in her 50s, she said.

Berg grew up in Chicago and studied journalism at the University of Iowa, from which graduated in 1949. “I majored in journalism and advertising and I was the only girl in this class,” she said. “I’m not that bold of a person so it sort of surprised me. I knew I wanted to be in media. I was thinking of doing layout and writing.”

But Berg, who married in 1950, said she never considered studying art more seriously. “I was not a wealthy woman,” she said. “I needed to get a job.” Within a year after marrying, she became pregnant and the couple moved to Stamford, where her husband opened an ad agency called Advertising Plus. They subsequently bought a house in New Canaan, where they lived for 41 years.

Many of the works are images of her travels to Europe or the American Southwest. Others are tenderly drawn portraits of children. The images of France, in particular, with the spindly, denuded trees of the city, and sun-kissed streets of Montmartre, recall the work of Ludwig Bemelmans, who wrote the “Madeline” books. They are crisp and suggestive, with long, elegant ink lines and soft rose and blue triangles used to delineate the coats and capes of passers-by.

“Much of the work does come from my travels,” said Berg, whose husband died in 2004. “I was very blessed that I was able to take all of these trips even when I had five children. My husband used to say, ‘I could take you to Peoria and you’d be happy.'” She has lived in Shelton since 1995.

Berg’s son, Bill, contacted the Plumb Library three months ago, explaining that his mother will be turning 98 in November, and was wondering whether the library would exhibit her art. The library tries to showcase local artists, said Stokes. “It was just a win-win for us,” she said.

Berg said she began painting in oil in her 60s. “It’s messy and it’s smelly and it takes a lot of work to clean it up,” she said. “But I was all about oils for awhile. I was working. I would come home and fix dinner and I’d go off to Silvermine. How I did that, I don’t know. You have to be young.”

For more information, visit the Plumb Memorial Library.

This article originally published at At 97 this CT artist is displaying a lifetime of artwork for the first time in Shelton.