Nada Rudan is most relaxed when painting, a skill she discovered at the age of 87 and culminating this summer in an exhibition of her artwork — to mark her 100th birthday.
Bosnian native Rudan says she started to paint at a late age to keep herself busy and now finds the days are often too short to fit in everything she planned to do. Her daily routine is to paint for three hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, when she is at home.
“I don’t know what boredom means, I don’t know what depression means, I always find some-thing to do,” she says.
Her independent spirit, good health and love of travel help.
After her exhibition in Sarajevo in late June, Rudan left for a month’s holiday on the Adriatic coast and then travelled on to Germany where her daughter lives.
“I am determined not to become a burden to my children,” the mother of two, grandmother of three and great-grandmother of four children said in an interview in her spacious home in central Sarajevo, surrounded by some of her estimated 200 paintings.
“And I am calm, I don’t want to be nervous, I always think first and then act,” says Rudan, who made a living as a dressmaker, keeping on “selected customers” until she was 85.
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