Thursday morning is watercolor day at the White Rock Senior Center, just as it has been for more than 10 years. During that time, dozens of retirees have immortalized hundreds – if not thousands – of still-lifes, landscapes and floral arrangements, thanks to volunteer teacher Peggy Briscoe.

“Most people, if you were to ask them, would say that one of the things they want to do during their lives is learn to paint, but they usually don’t have the time until after they retire,” Briscoe says.

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Briscoe, 71, has been teaching at the White Rock Senior Center for nearly 15 years, most of the time on a volunteer basis. When she started, she was a mere youngster compared to most of her students, but now she fits snugly within the average age group.

She began working at the center shortly after completing a series of water color classes that helped perfect her painting skills. The classes also sparked her interest in helping other people enjoy painting.

The regulars who attend the Thursday morning sessions have become more like a club than a class. They paint and talk freely during the several hours they are together.

“We mainly get together for the fun of painting,” says Mary Rook of Casa Linda, who has been taking classes from Briscoe for 13 years.

“We like to show each other what we’ve done and critique one another’s work and offer suggestions.”

Briscoe is a good teacher because “she has a very good disposition and a tactful way of telling us if we do something wrong,” Rook says.

If watercolor is Briscoe’s passion, art and her class full of friends were important components in the therapy she needed following a stroke about a year and a half ago.

“Even through the stroke recovery period, her husband would drive her here so she could continue to teach,” says Adrienne Kahn, manager of the White Rock Senior Center.

“She felt strongly that she didn’t want to miss the classes.”

Briscoe says she tires more easily now, but has no plans to give up her sessions at the senior center.

“I just enjoy teaching so much,” she says.

Briscoe also teaches painting to adults at North Dallas Baptist Church and gives private lessons to children during the summer.

“Peggy is one of those people who, if she couldn’t paint, she would die,” Rook says.