NEWS photo Terry Peters

ARTHUR MILNE doesn’t mind taking a break from drawing for a
photo session but only if it doesn’t take too long. The 96-year-old is

Cedarview Ledge’s busiest resident.

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41 - Wednesday, July 11, 1990 - North Shore News

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PAGE 46

Artist Arthur Milne
refuses to slow down

NIGHT AFTER night, Arthur Milne sits under the burn-
ing light of a table lamp in his modest Cedarview Lodge

apartment.

At 96, he’s a quiet man —-
made quiet, that is, by a stroke
that muddled his speech eight
years ago. His slender hands,
trembling and gnarled with age,
have been crippled by arthritis,
and his view of the world has nar-
rowed ever since nature robbed his
right eye of its vision.

But if you think this frail old
gent is at the end of the line,
think again. Despite the obstacles,
Milne has forged himself a full-
time ‘hobby’? as an avid artist
and craftsman.

And some of his best work was
ereated only a few years ago,
when Milne entered his nineties.

“After he retired he began
painting,’’ explains daughter
Leona Haggert, 62. ‘‘About five
years ago his hands became shaky,
so he stopped oil painting. We
gave him felt pens and he taught
himself how to draw with them.”’

The best way to see Milne’s
work is by taking an escorted tour
of Cedarview Lodge with him. At

LYN JACOR
Reporter

96. he walks at a surprisingly
steady pace. Milne has lived at
Cedarview since 1983 and during
those seven years he’s turned out
an amazing amount of artwork:
charcoal drawings of animals,
hand-crafted wooden planters, a
set of finely painted wood
soldiers, and oil paintings depic-
ting scenes of Howe Sound, Cates
Park and Mount Baker.

“t do it casy. In one after-
noon,”’ Milne says, pointing to a
felt drawing of a bird.

His most recent artistic feat has
been the mastery of the loom,
which he learned to use in one
short week.

“He works all day,’’ said a
Cedarview Lodge activity aid.
“*He’s a wonderful worker. He’s
always learning new skills. You
might say he’s a workaholic.’’

One of Milne’s greatest ac-

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complishments is a large rug
hooking of a Scottish clansman,
which won first prize at the 1989
PNE Creative Crafts Contest. The
piece zequired hours of fiddly,
detailed work, but Milne was on a
mission and nothing was going to
stop him.

“He sits in the corner of the
room under the light and does one
line after another with one eye,”’
says Haggert, noting that Milne is
gunning for a second PNE win
with his latest entry — a hooking
of a tiger’s face.

Milne, Cedarview's second
oldest resident, was born in Mon-
trose, Scotland in 1893. He is one
of the few surviving members of
the First Canadian Heavy Artillery
Regiment who fought at Vimy
Ridge during The Great War.

“*He was a true Legionnaire for
37 years,"’ says friend and col-
league Robert Kinsey of South
Burnaby’s Legion #83. He’s our
oldest member. He’s a beautiful
man and J love him.””

Milne says he doesn’t know if
he wants to live to be 100. In the
meantime, he’s making the most
of every day.

(Not Exactly
As Shown}