Susie Freeman, from Wallasey, is showcasing her work in a free solo exhibition titled The Joy of Age at the Birkenhead Park Visitor Centre from this Friday to Monday (July 10 to 13).
The exhibition features colourful abstract pieces celebrating life after 60 and aims to challenge negative stereotypes about ageing.
Susie Freeman, from Wallasey, is showcasing her work in a free solo exhibition titled The Joy of Age at the Birkenhead Park Visitor Centre from this Friday to Monday (July 10 to 13, 2026) (Image: Craig Manning / Newsquest)
Ms Freeman, a retired computer tutor who previously taught textiles, told the Globe: “There is a persistent cultural narrative that aging is synonymous with slowing down or fading into the background.
“With The Joy of Age, I wanted to turn that idea on its head. These pieces are about energy, wisdom and the distinct beauty of life’s later chapters.”
Her journey into art began after her retirement and most of the work on display was created in the short months since completing a foundation course in fine art.
For her final project, Ms Freeman – who has a studio at Make CIC’s creative space in Birkenhead town centre – decided to focus on a theme close to her heart—her own experience of getting older.
She said: “Now I’m 65 and there’s so much in the press about how awful it is getting older and all the things that can go wrong.
“I just thought ‘let’s flip it’. Let’s do something joyful and happy.”
Susie Freeman, from Wallasey, is showcasing her work in a free solo exhibition titled The Joy of Age at the Birkenhead Park Visitor Centre from this Friday to Monday (July 10 to 13, 2026) (Image: Craig Manning / Newsquest)
Susie describes life after retirement as a “renaissance” and wants others to see what she calls the “liberation” that comes with this stage of life.
She hopes her work will reach a broad audience, adding: “You can be all doom and gloom, but you can also flip it to be joyous about it.
“People can come who know nothing about art, who don’t actually understand abstract art at all, but can still come along and actually feel good about it.”
While she is not yet selling the larger pieces, Susie believes they could, one day, find a home in public spaces.
She said: “I think they would look fantastic in a hotel or within a cafe situation, because they’re just perfect for that. They’re a bit big for a domestic setting.”
The exhibition features five large pieces alongside several smaller works exploring colour and form as metaphors for visibility, choice and meaning in later life.
One of her pieces includes 65 rings representing occasions that have shaped her life, some good and some bad.
She reflected: “the point of the picture is, and where I am now, because all those things have happened, and the culmination of all those things.
“If you over-explain, it deadens it.
“I want visitors to engage with it and see what it means to them personally.”
The exhibition is hosted at Birkenhead Park Visitor Centre, a fitting venue given Freeman’s photographic work in the same space during the pandemic.
She captured a photographic series documenting the life cycle of swans during lockdown.
She said: “I’m going back to that space with a completely different hat on, but still a creative hat on, but a lot more free expressive . . .”
Freeman believes that if The Joy of Age resonates with visitors it could become a touring exhibition.
She is in contact with Age UK Wirral and other organisations in hopes of reaching wider audiences in other UK cities.
The exhibition is open from 9am to 4.30pm each day and is free to attend.
Freeman, who has two sons and a grandson, said: “They just sort of think it’s another of these madcap schemes of mum’s.
“But I’ve always liked to do different things and have never been afraid to experiment artistically. It’s sort of pushed myself into, trying to see, go down a path and see how well that fits suits me, which I do with photography very well.
“I’m very much enjoying the art phase at the moment.
“Life doesn’t have to stop when you’re 60.
“Life can actually, it can be even more fulfilling as you get older.”
Residents of all ages are invited to experience the exhibition and reflect on the vibrant potential of later life.