When Arline Mann left her 25-year stint at Goldman Sachs, she knew she would have to find something else to tackle with the same tenacity she had poured into her high-powered business career. After all, she was only in her mid-60s at the time, and her parents had lived into their 90s, decades after they retired. After considering options that ranged from writing novels to becoming a detective, Mann settled on painting, specifically watercolors, and committed herself to mastering the art form.
“When I asked my long-term instructor his advice for someone starting at this age but who is serious about it, he said ‘don’t try to be too many things.’ I’ve followed that advice—I’ve only painted in watercolor and have limited my subject matter to interiors and still lifes, with a little landscape and figurative work.”
Shelter, watercolor, 24 x 18 in.
Now, at 77, Mann’s diligence has paid off in the form of her first solo exhibition. The Forever House, featuring paintings of the historic estate in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that she and her husband purchased about a decade ago, is on view at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee, through October 26.
When Mann and her husband retired, they realized they weren’t tied to staying in New York City full time. They had no ties to the South, but Mann had fond memories of vacationing in the Smoky Mountains in her youth, so she started looking into properties for sale in the area.
All Those Worlds, watercolor over graphite, 16½ x 49½ in.
“A photo of this house popped up and we never looked at another,” she says. The Elder House, perched on a hilltop with spectacular views of the Tennessee River and surrounding mountains, was built in the 1920s and has changed hands few times since. Built out of wood and stone from the surrounding environment, the house exudes a romantic charm, like a stone worn smooth with the passage of time.
“You have a real feeling of the lived-in nature of the house,” says Mann. “You have a sense of the people who were there and what they did with the house and how they felt about it. Essentially, it has not changed. It’s still an old stone mountain house with most of the original wood floors. We have not fancified it all; it hasn’t been tarted up…part of the reason we went there is to not have what people might expect for those who’ve had the careers we have. We wanted something that felt authentic and original.”
Moongate, watercolor over graphite, 17 x 24 in.
Mann has poured her fondness of the Elder House, and the joys she has experienced there, onto paper in the form of realistic renderings of the estate’s idiosyncratic interior and exterior spaces.
Splitting their time between Chattanooga and New York City, Mann employs a variety of techniques to execute her paintings, working from sketches done on site and photographs. Among the pieces in the show is a light-kissed depiction of the cottage’s hand-crafted porch; a cozy, inviting armchair that provided comfort during the pandemic, and the stone moongate where she and her husband exchanged nuptials.
Cottage Porch, watercolor over graphite, 24 x 18 in.
When Mann visited the exhibition for the first time, she was worried she would walk into the room and think that her work wasn’t any good. “But I didn’t feel that way,” she says. “I think I’m the poster child for retirement. I just took the next, right step. I kept studying harder, trying to gain knowledge and skill, and I feel very good about gaining those skill at my age. And also the steps I took on my own to make this exhibition happen—which was suggesting it to the museum myself.” —
The Forever House
Through October 26, 2025
Customs House Museum & Cultural Center
200 S. 2nd Street, Clarksville, TN 37040
(931) 648-5780
www.customshousemuseum.org
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