Going green long before it was fashionable


I meet Dorothy (Dottie) Greene this weekend at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival Gallery, during the Gallery Walk. She had work in the Hunter Gallery, too, next door, but the whole Arts Festival Gallery features her work this month. The retrospective of Dottie's work is called, "The Colours of Greene," it is on display until November 19, 2011. The work is flora and fauna, all sorts of Florida colors, but mostly a lot of greenery and nature.

Dottie is a member of the Miami Watercolor Society, a non-profit organization founded in 1974. Its nearly 200 members include water media painters ranging from professionals and art educators to those who simply paint for the joy of it, as well as patrons of the arts. It is a culturally-diverse organization that informs and educates its members and the public by providing exhibitions, offering community education, water media workshops, student exhibitions, art teacher workshops, and demonstrations.

The Hunter Gallery is filled this month with the work of the Watercolor Society members. Dottie is a nationally-renowned Miami Watercolor Society member who is also a member of the Florida, National and American Watercolor Societies. She has had one-woman shows in the state capitol, at the Biscayne Nature Center, public libraries, and more. Her watercolors can be found in a myriad of private and corporate collections, and in art in public places.

She has been featured in national magazines and published in books and newspapers. Under Dottie’s leadership, the Miami Watercolor Society started a student watercolor show in partnership with the Art Education Program Office of the Miami-Dade County Public School System 25 years ago. The show grew from a display of some 50 paintings at the Coral Reef Library to between 250 and 350 that are selected annually for exhibition.

Very little watercolor was being taught in the schools at that time. Through Dottie’s instruction, watercolor painting is provided to art teachers and students in the form of workshops. Together with members of the Miami Watercolor Society and the support of the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council, the annual watercolor exhibition, “Impressions in Watercolor," is offered for kindergarten through senior high school students annually. As a result, the program has grown from a few art teachers teaching watercolor to most teachers including watercolor in their curriculum.

An interesting thing happened during the Gallery Walk premier -- green dots started appearing next to so many of Dottie's paintings. I asked what that was, that meant they were sold. So many green dots for Green's work. Amazing.

Stop in the galleries daily, they are open Monday through Friday at the Mayfair Atrium from 10 am to 5 pm.