NATCHEZ — When Ruby Beard went to an art class a few years ago she never expected painting to keep her so busy in retirement.

When The Dart found the retired nurse at home on Oak Street, the 88-year-old said her home was filled with paintings she has done over the years.

“This is my favorite painting,” she said. “I still need to frame it, I painted it a few months ago.”

She points to a picture of an old bayou home with a boy cane-fishing in the swamp on a nearby pier, there is a Ford Model T parked in the driveway.

“The painting is about the Model T,” she said. “When I showed it to my children they didn’t think it looked like a Ford. The car is so old.

“Do you see (the boy’s) can of worms?” she laughs.

As you walk through her house, you can find Beard’s oil-painted handiwork in every room, many of them flowers.

“I like painting flowers,” she said. “Flowers are pretty. I’ve painted some of them in art classes, and others from pictures I’ve found, flowers are fun.”

Oil painting comes easy enough for Beard that she said there are enough paintings to fill a room.

“I enjoy painting,” she said. “I’m not the best, but I don’t have to be the best.”

Beard said that she has some paintings that tell a story, such as one of a couple of boys fishing on a stream with a church in the background.

“This is a painting where the boys ought to be in church instead of outside fishing, catching nothing,” she said. “I like paintings that tell a story.”

She has one painting her late husband, Charles “Dutch” Beard, collected from a plantation.

“It’s an old painting and had been hanging in the same spot for a long while,” Beard said. “One night, I heard a crashing in the dining room and came looking in to see what happened.”

When she got there, she found that the 100-year-old painting had fallen and was damaged.

“I had to replace 100-year-old paint on a spot of a 100-year-old canvas,” she said. “It was hard, but I used oil-paint and it turned out good.

“I bet you wouldn’t even notice it if I hadn’t told you,” Beard said.

Her great-granddaughter, 7-year-old Abby, has taken up her interest in painting, she said.

“When her mother came up here a while ago, she brought a (painting Abby made) of a dog,” Beard said. “I was so proud of her, it was so good, and I couldn’t do any better.”

Despite her modesty, Beard enjoys painting on her easel at home, and she will continue to paint.

“At 88 years old, painting is about the only active work I can do, but I love it,” she said.