ALTAMONT — Growing up in pre-war Czechoslovakia, Irena Altmanova Frinta had two loves: painting and literature.

As she grew, she decided that she could not split her affection and chose painting over writing.

Now, at 95, a lifetime and world away from that decision, Mrs. Frinta has picked up where she left off some 75 years ago, pursuing two passions.

On April 19, at 7 p.m., at the Altamont Free Library, Mrs. Frinta will be on hand to celebrate the publishing of her first novel, “The Lives and Loves of Three Women,” the story of three young women and their attitudes and approach to love, marriage, friendship, and work.

She wanted to write an uncomplicated book, a relaxing read in a frantic world, she said. Although the book’s last few pages reveal a surprise.

Friends have told Mrs. Frinta that they felt whisked back to their youth after reading it. She also said that she wants to be an example to other elderly people to prove that, at their age, they can continue to do meaningful work.

About five years ago, she and her late husband, Mojmir Frinta, joined a group of retired university professors who were working on their own memoirs.

Each time the group met, members would bring a short story that they had written about an event or person that was important to their own life story for others to critique. But Mr. Frinta soon became sick, and the couple stopped going to the group and Mrs. Frinta stopped writing. Mr. Frinta died in 2015.

Then two years ago — at 93 — Mrs. Frinta decided that, instead of a memoir, her first book would be a novel.

Mrs. Frinta studied art at the College of Applied Art in Prague. While in college, she won an exchange scholarship from the French government to go to Paris to study at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and Academy Andre Lhote. It was there where she met Mojmir Frinta.

After graduation, Mrs. Frinta worked for the refugee committee and would seek out Eastern European students to give aid to.

The Frintas arrived in the United States in 1951 and moved to Michigan, where Mr. Frinta earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. During this time, Mrs. Frinta was teaching at the Flint Institute of Art and giving private lessons.

They then moved to New York City for eight years, while Dr. Frinta worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, restoring art.

The Frintas moved to Altamont in 1963, when Dr. Frinta got a job as a professor at the University at Albany. Mrs. Frinta taught art in Guilderland schools for a year, and then went on to teach a night class for adults at the University at Albany. She would then go on to be a substitute teacher in the Guilderland and Mohonasen school districts.

Mrs. Frinta said that she chose to be a substitute rather than a full-time art teacher because “when you are a teacher you cannot really create.” She liked that,  as a substitute, she would be called only a couple of times a week and that she could spend the rest of her week on her art.

Her own art has been most influenced by French Impressionists, she said. Mrs. Frinta said that she admired their work because they understood nature better than any other painters. She prefers to paint landscapes above all else.

At the core of her painting and writing, she said, is a desire to show people the beauty that is all around them.