30 November, 2025

Octogenarian’s art classes provide outlet for creativity

Showtime… (from left) art teacher Heloisa Barczak with students Jane Adams, Sum Leung and Paul Willis

After a dozen years running a community art class in Takapuna, 85-year-old Heloisa Barczak is in no hurry to slow down. And her students, mostly fellow retirees, don’t want her to, saying the free weekly classes are both creative and companionable.
That’s exactly what the Brazilian-born teacher was looking for when she set them up. Having followed her son and daughter in immigrating to New Zealand, she says: “I love to draw and I love to paint and I wanted a group to do it with.”
Group members meet weekly in the Senior Citizens Hall and Barczak is on hand to mentor and encourage experimentation. “She’s amazing, with all her advice, we can try anything” says Takapuna resident Karen Vodanovich. She learned of the classes through a previous story in the Observer. “I’m showing the messiest piece of art,” said Vodanovich of her contribution to a year-ender exhibition on display upstairs in the library until the end of November.
Barczak has 16 regular students who have works in the show. They vary in experience from newcomers to the likes of skilled artist Paul Willis from Birkenhead. “People like Paul don’t need the teaching,” she says. Willis’s exhibition piece depicts a kea.
The group is assisted by Ancad (Auckland North Community and Development) with hall hire costs, and the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board’s northern activator Ruth Moloney supported the framing costs for the exhibition.
Former Takapuna resident Barczak, who now lives in the Lady Allum Retirement Village in Milford, plans to start the classes again in February.

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