Occidental artist Helen Caswell, 92, carries on a rich tradition

Helen Caswell, 92, one of Occidental's 'grande dames,' climbs a long flight of stairs each day to her studio to work.

Her latest effort is a children's book called 'Rigel' about a girl and her horse. She is writing and illustrating it. It will be the 37th book published during her long and distinguished career as an artist.

Occidental has hit the jackpot with talented older women who have added tremendously to the community. Elizabeth Graham lived into her late 90s. Before she died, she taught at every one-room schoolhouse in the area, eventually ending up at the Coleman Valley Schoolhouse.

Graham remained deeply involved in education all her life. When Harmony school moved out of Occidental, she said that a town that loses a school 'loses its heart.'

Doris Murphy lived to be 103. She organized the Occidental Community Council, made sure the Occidental Center for the Arts had a home, actively worked social cases until age 97, and finally wrote a book called 'Love and Labor' about her life and that of her labor leader husband, Joe Murphy.

Caswell offers a softer gift — art that primarily revolves around children — and lots of it.

'My mother and father divorced when I was 4 years old. That proved to be a stroke of good luck because I then went to live with my grandparents on 100 acres in the country near Springfield, Ore.,' she said.

Her grandmother, an aspiring writer herself, producing 'true confessions' sort of tales, taught Helen how to type and encouraged her to pursue a love of art. Then she made Helen type up her handwritten stories for her.

'I was always happy to see the words 'The End' with my grandmother's stories,' she recalled.

She met her late husband, Dwight Caswell, in junior high school, and the two remained sweethearts through 72 years of marriage. They went to college together. Dwight's father, a physicist and head of the department at the University of Oregon, had fostered a passion for science in his son.

"Then the war happened,' Helen said. 'Dwight wanted to fly since he had flown since high school, but it happened that he got too airsick to be a military pilot. He went to visit the National Science Center in Washington, D.C., and an officer gave him a tour. He was on his way to board a ship when he got a call that the lab at the center wanted to hire him, so he spent the war in the research lab working on torpedoes.'

The couple had five children.

In the meantime, Helen kept painting. A Carmel gallery grabbed her work, and she stayed with them until they retired and closed the gallery.

Three more galleries carried Helen's work and they all wanted one-woman shows.

'That's about 30 paintings for each gallery. That's a lot of work,' she said, laughing. 'Once I got a call from a woman with such a strong Southern accent. I was sure it was one of my kids playing a joke, but it wasn't. She wanted me to illustrate books. I did 27 books for her.'

All of her children drew and painted, too.

Music was popular in the family, too. Helen played piano.

'Singing around the piano was a daily family event,' son Philip said.

Much of Helen's art and writing is religious in nature. She said her Episcopal faith is important to her, and she made it approachable for children in such books as 'St. Francis Celebrates Christmas.'

It has indirectly rubbed off on her children. Philip worked as a restorer and designer for churches doing such specialized work as gold-leafing domes, designing altars and restoring stained glass. Mary paints icons for pleasure.

'They were remarkable parents – from real frontier stock,' Philip Caswell said.