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It’s never too late to start making art. With some luck, you may even awaken the hidden Picasso within you, like 89-year-old Christine Hazell did. Living with memory impairment issues, her daughter suggested she take up drawing by copying photographs with some colored pencils left behind by her grandchildren. The mission was simple: give her a pastime, while simultaneously helping her reconnect with images she has started to forget.
In the process, her family discovered an artist with a unique perspective. The results are not traditional portraits, but Hazell’s reinterpretations of faces she once knew well. Spending her days in a cottage in York, England, Hazell is reported to spend between 10 minutes to two hours on each portrait.
“She only started drawing in May 2025 at the age of 88 after my sister encouraged her to give it a go,” Matthew Higgs, Hazell’s son, wrote on Instagram. “She has since made [about] 400 drawings of family members, friends, neighbors, and celebrities [including] artists, musicians, actors, politicians, and members of the Royal Family.” Higgs, who is a curator and gallerist long devoted to championing creatives from non-traditional backgrounds, was taken aback by his mom’s drawings and started posting them on social media, earning the octogenarian artist thousands of fans.
A year later, Hazell is still going strong. Over Easter, she took a different approach and made her first ever artwork from life, as opposed to her usual work copying photographs, and drew a vase of daffodils. She has also made a portrait of the late David Hockney, who, like her, was also born in Yorkshire in 1937. Her latest endeavor almost ties back to the cubist look of her work with four different interpretations of the same picture of Picasso, allowing us to see her brain at work. “It’s fascinating when she returns to /revisits the same subject,” her son says.
Her singular portraits have earned her the attention of the art world. In December 2025, the Partisan, a café with an arts space near where she lives, held the first exhibition of her drawings. And now, things are going further. This July, the London gallery Studio Voltaire is hosting an exhibition of 25 of her drawings. Titled Different Faces, the show is named after her creative process, which consists of her giving her subjects a “different face” by, according to her, “spoiling the perfection” from the base images.
According to the American Academy of Neurology, people who take up arts and crafts in middle and old age may delay the development of memory problems in very old age. While Hazell’s family hopes her daily drawing practice will help to strengthen the connections to her family, friends, and the past, the talented octogenarian is also leading a thrilling third act of her life.
To stay up to date with Hazell’s work, make sure to follow Matthew Higgs on Instagram, where he posts his mom’s latest creations.
At the age of 88, Christine Hazell took up drawing after being encouraged by her daughter, who hoped it would help with her memory impairment issues.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
In the process, her family discovered an artist with a unique perspective.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
The result are not traditional portraits, but Hazell’s reinterpretations of faces she once knew well.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Spending her days in a cottage in York, England, Hazell is reported to spend anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours on each portrait.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
“She has since made [about] 400 drawings of family members, friends, neighbors, and celebrities [including] artists, musicians, actors, politicians and members of the Royal Family,” her son says.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Her singular portraits have earned her the attention of the art world.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
In December 2025, the Partisan, a nearby café with an arts space, held the first exhibition of her drawings.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
This July, the London gallery Studio Voltaire is hosting an exhibition of 25 of her drawings.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Exhibition Information:
Christine Hazell
Different Faces
July 15–October 18, 2026
Studio Voltaire
1A Nelsons Row, London SW4 7JR, United Kingdom
Sources: A viral hit and loved by Tracey Emin: the woman who took up art at 88 – and became an Instagram sensation
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