Dottie Smith
Dottie Smith
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I was born in Ohio and my family moved to Arizona when I was just 2 years old, so nearly a native Arizonan. Me and my husband Bob (Smitty) of 50+ years have a little piece of heaven just outside of Show Low where you can find us in the summer months, and a home in Peoria where we winter.
I was a busy REALTOR for 30 years with very little time for outside activities; but took up photography in 2011 at the behest of my husband. Together we’ve traveled thousands of miles tootling through the woods on dirt roads throughout many states looking for wildlife to photograph. I’ve won several ribbons for these wildlife and landscape photographs at the Arizona Camera Club Council.
After retirement in 2017 I joined a pottery club, and stumbled into water color while attempting to learn to paint on my pottery. I’ve been learning to paint via YOUTUBE and a number in person classes. With no formal training, my style is simplistic and whimsical; which in addition to paintings, I have incorporated into greeting cards and mugs. My primary medium is watercolor but I also enjoy acrylic.
In an effort to “catch up” for the many years without art in my life, I have joined several art associations. In addition to Ground Floor Artists; I also am a member of the Westbrook Village Fine Arts Club, Artists Guild of Arizona, WHAM, and Arts Alliance of the White Mountains. I’ve very much enjoyed the demonstrations and classes available at all the organizations and through these associations I am realizing the many ways and mediums artists use to express themselves. I really consider myself “an artist in the making”!
We summer outside of Show Low, AZ, and as I spend more time in the beautiful White Mountains, I find my interests are expanding from mostly desert scenes to the wildlife I photographed as well as mountain/landscape settings. I particularly enjoy using my own photographs as reference for my paintings.