— “Living with materiality is not what I do.”
What a treat for me to get to write a profile of Lois Schroff. Born in 1924, she still is delightful at 101. And when I told her how much fun it had been to interview her since I got to ask such personal questions, she laughed and said, “Ah, but you don’t know about any of my affairs!”
And I’m sorry, dear reader, but I don’t. I do know that she was born in Arlington, VA and that her early life was made very difficult by the Depression and the instability extreme poverty brings. There were years when her family could not keep her, and though she was very clever, there was no hope of attending college. When she tells her story, despite the sad parts, you have the sense that nothing has ever daunted her. She did so well in high school that, before she had even finished, her principal recommended her for an office job with a friend, and Lois went to work. She was soon not just an office worker but an office manager, and then she was married and a mother with a girl and a boy. But the marriage didn’t work and despite attempts at reconciliation, she divorced, and it was back to office work since she had to support herself and her daughter on her own. Her son was raised by his father and his grandparents. After ten years she met the Mr. Schroff in her life and they had two boys, but illness took their father when she was still in her 30s. She then made a living, a good one, in real estate until she was in her 70s. Her boys, still lovingly attentive, live in the US.
Along the way she heard of Edgar Cayce, who had given thousands of clairvoyant readings to improve people’s spiritual and physical health. Later when she retired from real estate, she moved to Virginia Beach practically across the street from his famous A.R.E.—Association for Research and Enlightenment. There she was introduced to the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner and her devotion to it has never waned. Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society in Germany in 1923. He believed that through understanding the spiritual world individuals can improve their own lives and contribute to a more harmonious society. Prior to moving to Ajijic, Lois conducted study groups on Steiner’s philosophy for over 25 years.
And also through the A.R.E., she encountered the sort of painting that inspired her to follow Steiner’s spiritually based precepts for art. Lois became a student of Liane Collot d’Herbois, an Anthroposophic art therapist in The Netherlands. She also studied in England and Germany, and when she returned to the US, she opened The Chalice Center for the Arts in Reston, VA, which promoted spiritually based painting founded on the principles of Anthroposophy. For years she taught courses in watercolor. She has given adult education classes and practiced artistic therapy with learning-disabled children. Her work has been seen as “Best in Show” and “First” when she exhibited in juried exhibitions in and around her home in Virginia.
Here at Lakeside, where she moved at 80 along with her daughter, Kem, Lois has exhibited at Diane Pearl Colleciones, Ajijic Society of Artists juried shows, and last year at a retrospective at Casa del Sol Inn. Her paintings aim to picture a truth behind the everyday and she succeeds with images whose luminosity seem to capture pure light coming through foreground veils of color. She says she felt freed and inspired by Steiner’s lectures about the influence of the spiritual on the physical world, intermingling in colors and forms, and by his mentor Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who discovered white light to be a composite of all colors and who emphasized the subjective and psychological aspects of color perception, relating colors to emotions. Lois’s paintings are ethereally beautiful.
And she is someone very like that herself.
Discover trusted local services and hidden gems with our easy-to-use online directory.
- PROFILE – Lois Schroff - August 30, 2025
- Yelling at ChatGPT - July 31, 2025
- Cleopatra Blushes—Identifying Shakespeare - May 29, 2025
