by Michele Malinchak
Lively strains of Bach fill the air as Aurelia Nieves-Callwood opens the door to her apartment. Wearing a turquoise wrap cardigan and artisan earrings, she shatters all stereotypes you might have about octogenarians. “I think I got these at the Michener,” she said, when asked about her earrings.
Aurelia is a name of Latin origin meaning “golden,” and one could say there’s a golden aura about her. As she digs into her past explaining how she became an artist, her dark eyes sparkle with enthusiasm as she recounts all the different chapters of her life. With so much to tell, she has to stop herself more than once by interjecting, “Now, that’s a story for another time.”
Several of her oil paintings hang on the walls and depict a wide range of subjects including still life, landscapes and figurative work. Her style is a mix of realism and impressionism and she derives inspiration from Bucks County scenes such as farms, streams, covered bridges and architecture. “I love nature, especially trees,” she said. Observing her surroundings is most important to her. “It’s all in the seeing,” she added.
One of her paintings, ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ began with one image leading to others. “I liked this old piano I saw at a B&B in Vermont and decided to build a painting around it,” she said. “It needed someone to play it and from there I added other elements.” In another work, ‘Sunday Morning Stroll,’ Aurelia depicted a Victorian scene requested by her granddaughter. The figures and street scene were totally painted from her imagination.
Contemporary subjects also catch her eye, such as ‘Sheepwalking in Peddlers Village.’ There she came across the unusual scene of a woman sitting on a storefront bench, leash in hand, with her two sheep resting nearby. The composition has several strong linear elements that are softened by the figure of the woman and the sheep. Aurelia creates perspective by taking us inside the store window and up a stairwell, leading us further back into the painting.
Regarding technique, Aurelia doesn’t spend time doing preliminary sketches. After she tones her canvas with a neutral color, she jumps right in and starts drawing with her paintbrush. She works on one painting at a time putting all her effort into it and having it framed immediately after she’s done. Sometimes, though, she revisits paintings and will change or add things, like one she did of the Delaware River. The first version was simply a landscape, but she felt it needed human interest. “So, I put in a fisherman and his dog,” she said. “The painting sold as soon as I added them.”
All of her work is done in her studio where she works from photographs and also does commissioned work. Entirely self-taught, she refers to her ample collection of fine art books to hone her skills. She admires artists of the New Hope School, especially Edward Redfield and George Sotter.
Born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, she spent time studying abroad after high school. At 16 she sailed solo on The Queen Elizabeth I to visit her aunt and uncle who lived in England. She turned 17 during the voyage and travelled first class, donning formal and semi-formal dresses all sewn by her mother from Vogue patterns.
While in England she attended Mid-Essex Technical College in Chelmsford (which is now called Anglia Ruskin University). She studied economics for two years and during spring break traveled to Spain as an exchange student.
Becoming an artist never crossed her mind until later in life. Instead, she always wanted to have her own store and while in her 40’s, opened one in Yonkers. Calling it Pick-A-Dilly, she sold an eclectic mix of clothing and jewelry catering to teenagers. One morning though, on her drive to work, something ignited a spark in her. Looking out her car window she was so captivated by the spectacular fall foliage that all she wanted to was paint it, but where to start?
Fortunately, just down the street from her store was a frame shop owned by an artist. She walked over to buy art supplies and asked if he could perhaps give her some pointers. “His name was Albert and he was a very talented oil painter,” she said. He agreed to help her get started, but mainly had her practice on her own. “He told me to paint what you see—it makes it more real. He’d have me copy scenes from calendars and postcards from the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art).” So began the close friendship between the two which lasted some 20 years.
She ran the store for two years and painted as a hobby when she had time. Later she opened another store, Pick-A-Dilly Tots to Teens, in Scarsdale, NY. After the store was robbed she decided to leave the retail business.
In 1973 she began working for the American Bank Note Company in the Bronx, a career that lasted 24 years. The imposing structures of the buildings took up three square city blocks and always impressed her as a young girl. “I’d walk past it thinking it was a prison,” she said.
First founded in 1795 by predecessor firms, the American Bank Note Company was formed in 1858 and became the nation’s foremost high security engraving and printing enterprise. It printed paper money, postage stamps and stock and bond certificates. After the Civil War, the newly formed Treasury Department took over the job of printing U.S. currency. The American Bank Note Company continued to print currency and stamps for foreign countries, stock certificates, bonds and finally U.S. food stamps, holograms, travelers checks and other items designed to ward off counterfeiting.
Aurelia began there by reconciling bank accounts, eventually moving to sales and marketing and finally becoming the company’s archivist and product manager. She selected engravings for the postal service’s commemorative panels and was inspired by their extraordinary craftsmanship. She also knew of their value to collectors who were purchasing the panels for their fine engravings.
When the company lost its contract with the postal service to print commemorative panels (for a difference of two cents), she asked the president of the company if she could start a new series to satisfy the collectors. He agreed and Aurelia developed the American Bank Note Archive Series.
“We were a maximum security company and no one knew how many engravings existed,” she said. “We still have thousands of engravings in our archives.”
Later the company merged with U.S. Banknote Company from Philadelphia and relocated to Horsham, PA. Aurelia was asked to come along because of her extensive knowledge of engravings and her marketing skills. She moved from Westchester County, NY to Chalfont in 1990 and worked at the Horsham location for seven years.
During her career at American Bank Note Company, Aurelia stopped painting, but resumed when she retired in 1997 at age 65.
Next to painting, her second love is music. She listens to classical music while painting but appreciates all types of music. For the past three years she’s served as president of the Delaware Valley Music Club and helps plan their luncheons and events. “I made 19 pounds of pulled pork for our last soiree,” she said. As president she ramped up the club’s visibility by producing pamphlets, introducing a website and holding soirees to attract wider interest. The club’s goal is to encourage young people to appreciate classical music by having professional musicians perform at local schools. In addition they hold youth competitions and offer scholarships to gifted seniors pursuing musical careers.
Aurelia also donates her art to the Lenape Chamber Ensemble at their annual Baroque Concert. At the concert, held at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, paintings by different artists are raffled off. Aurelia instituted the raffle in 2017 as an additional source of funding for the group.
She’s been in several juried shows in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and her paintings are in private collections throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her painting of the Pearl S. Buck House was given to the Pearl S. Buck Museum at the University in Nanjing, China. Aurelia is also a member of New Hope Arts (formerly the New Hope Art League).
Her work is currently shown at Off the Wall Gallery in Skippack, PA and can also be found online at www.theupstairsgallery.com and www.fineartamerica.com. In May of 2022 she’ll have a one man show at Meadowood Senior Living in Worcester, PA.
Her life is enriched by her circle of friends and family which includes two sons, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. One granddaughter in particular is fond of her art and is often the lucky recipient of her paintings. In addition, Aurelia’s two tuxedo cats, Mitzi and Dexter, are good companions and are featured in one of her paintings.
Proud of her age and her accomplishments, at 89 she hopes to be an incentive for other seniors to lead healthy, fulfilled lives. She encourages them to take art classes or attend concerts and if they can’t drive themselves, have their relatives take them. “There’s a life out there for them if they just show interest in something.” That distinctive NY accent surfaced as she emphatically said, “You gotta be doing!”
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer who has a degree in art and enjoys oil painting.