Dottie Stanley
Many of my days are filled with luck, but today was especially lucky. My ocean-loving art instructor, Carole Mayne, invited me to her Tuesday morning figure painting session where she paints with various artists including Dottie Stanley. I had made arrangements earlier to interview Dottie Stanley after their session since she’s the scheduled demo artist for the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild in November. Carole, Dottie and several other fabulous painters meet on Tuesdays at Suzy Schaefer’s RSF studio. There they hire models and paint –a wonderful mixture of talent and art. Although I was quite intimidated by all this talent, I set up my canvas and paints at the easel next to Dottie Stanley. Dottie and I have never met so I was very excited to find out more about Dottie and her art.
Dottie has lived in La Jolla for the past 30+ years. She has been a driving force in the La Jolla art community. From the year 2000 to 2005 Dottie was president of the La Jolla Art Association and along with her husband, David Stanley, raised a substantial endowment for that Association. The Association had many successful years of managing many members’ exhibits and classes. In 2006 Dottie established the Allied Art Association with a collective of 95 members. AAASD partnered with the La Jolla Community Center for art exhibitions and beautifying the walls of the building . In 2019 Dottie orchestrated a merger between AAASD and La Jolla Art Association. Dottie now serves as the Vice President of the Association which hosts a members’ gallery, classes and demos. Dottie teaches an art class each Friday at the center.
That is Dottie – a businesswoman from the day she left her childhood home in New Jersey to her recent 2019 retirement. Dottie has always been a “doer”. Shaken in her early life by despair and oppression as a young wife and mother of two, Dottie worked through her anguish with hard work, long hours and her art. Her art has been as much a constant in her life as her successful 30-year career as an investment banker for both Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
Dottie was a self-taught artist. Working full time and raising two children Dottie found time to constantly continue her art education, which she says is the key to success for any artist. “Always remain a student, no matter how accomplished people may tell you you are”. Dottie’s own workshops include those with David Leffel, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Marybeth Mackenzie and many others. She attended the Art Students’ League in New York and was an early member of the Ridgewood Art institute in New Jersey. She also attended the San Francisco Art Institute on a part time basis because she worked full time. Dottie’s art hero is Arthur Maynard and her greatest influences include: David Leffel and Edward Hopper
https://davidleffel.com/paintings/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper
All this work, life and chagrin eventually paid off for Dottie as she met her man, her second husband, David Stanley. David was in advertising in New York when they met. Dottie credits David for much of her success since he has been the one to encourage her art throughout their life together. “You are better than you think,” he said as he pushed her to enter the 1990 Del Mar Fair art competition. Here is where her painting, a painted figure of a woman forlorn won Dottie 1stprize at the Fair that year. So, thought Dottie, maybe David is right, I do have something.
Dottie continued to win awards and over the years has had numerous shows. She showed with only three other artists at the San Diego Art Museum. Again her depiction of the strength in the female character was on display. This particular piece was a triptych of a homeless woman, a character we might all pass by quickly on the streets, one invisible but visibly in despair. At some point Dottie realized that these figures she was painting were herself wearing the despair of her past.
Dottie loves painting figures that tell a story, stories that evoke an emotion from the viewer and that are not just copying the subject on to a canvas. Some paintings tell a story from her past or something she feels in her heart. These stories are told with a multitude of figures, actors and models that play the different roles and display different emotions. She tells me that at times her models will inspire her with an idea through their pose or features but then sometimes she has a preconceived idea of what she feels and would like to express. But then again an idea may come later when she is “into” the painting where she will add an element or two to produce the message she is after. Dottie looks for strong light and shadows in her subject matter, temperature, time of day and atmosphere are all elements that help her tell the story. The bottom line for Dottie however is that she needs to find scenes that strikes a cord within herself; this is what excites her enough to push a brush around a canvas
We discussed one of my favorites of her paintings, entitled “Home, Sweet Home”. This 30x40 oil on canvas depicts a woman straddling an orange sofa, wearing tiger striped pants, tank top, a yellow turban, a pair of embellished cat eyeglasses and her mobile home is parked outside her window. She appears to be a very strong women albeit unusual she does possess her own style and strength and is obviously content and very comfortable in her own skin, in her own home she is herself. I love the painting and its story.
Today although early memories still haunt Dottie she has found her true self and she too is comfortable in her own skin living a happy full life of an artist. Her art reflects her past and her present creating social drama out of commonplace characters. These figures are layered with social issues and scream for an interpretation from the viewer. Join me in November as the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild hosts Dottie Stanley as she paints a figure and creates a story of beauty that may not be there at first glance.
