Teach your children well and who knows. They may one day do the same for you.
Last June, Ann Cory’s youngest son spent a warm afternoon teaching his mother the art of acrylic painting.
That day, Cory, a former watercolor artist, finished her first acrylic of sunlit roses she called “Awash in June.” Fifteen other paintings followed, as did the launch of Cory’s second career as an acrylic artist at the age of 59.
Cory’s work will be featured as one of the new artists during this weekend’s eighth annual Camano Island Studio Tour. Her work will be shown at the studio of her husband, Jack Dorsey, 2772 S. East Camano Drive. Also showing her work will be the couple’s daughter, April Nelson.
Cory said there’s a certain thrill to be producing art again. But she has a sense of humor about her new career that only maturity can bring.
“I started out not wanting to do great art,” Cory said. “I thought if nothing ever comes of it, at least I have Christmas presents.”
Cory had sold watercolors back in the day. She painted after her first and second children were born, but when Jed came along, it was just too much.
“I quit with him, so it’s ironic that he was the one to encourage me to start again,” Cory said.
Watercolor and acrylic are such different media that Cory needed her son’s guidance for that first piece: He picked out the paints, the right brushes and showed her from start to finish how it was done. Mother and son painted side by side.
Some of Cory’s pieces on display at this Mother’s Day weekend studio tour showcase her children and their childhood experiences. The painting “Cozy I Am” has Jason, about 4 years old, reading a Dr. Seuss book in a warm setting by the fireplace. In “Beach Treasure,” Jason is playing in the surf and “looking for a treasure but of course he’s my treasure,” Cory said.
In “Selected with Care,” 2-year-old April is picking English daisies.
Ironically, there are no paintings that feature Jed. “Isn’t that crazy,” Cory said. She means to get to that. “Something has to hit me, speaks to me of childhood and I haven’t had time.”
Cory paints at her mother’s home in downtown Stanwood. Her mother, Sayre Dodgson, 98, reads classic fiction while Cory paints. Cory’s father, the late Thomas Dodgson, was a doctor on Camano Island for 35 years.
Cory was named after her well-known grandmother, Fanny Y. Cory, a book and magazine cover illustrator in the early 1900s who drew two syndicated comic strips for about 30 years. In the Dodgson home, Cory had displayed Fanny’s artwork, including the collection of a strip called “Sonny Sayings.”
Fanny Cory’s book “The Fairy Alphabet,” which Ann Cory called her grandmother’s best work, was published after Fanny’s death.
“She felt she was an illustrator and always wondered if she could be a fine artist,” Ann Cory said. “I have the satisfaction of trying to do something she never got a chance to do.”
Cory purposefully chose to paint under her maiden name, wanting to prove she could make it regardless of her husband, an accomplished regional artist known for watercolors.
“Ann is very independent and a tremendous role model for women going through a second and third challenge in their lives,” said Rosanne Cohn, who for the past seven years has been public relations and marketing director for the studio tour. “And it could be anything, not just painting because when you pursue a dream, it really keeps you healthy and for another thing, it’s an amazing way to unleash your own potential.”
Cory did admit that Dorsey gives her good criticism. She doesn’t like to be told such things, however, in the middle of her work. Another reason why she paints at her mom’s.
“I always listen to what he says but I don’t always do everything he says,” Cory said.
With grandmother, husband and children as artists, Cory said her life has had that mutual thread of art.
“And it’s been wonderful.”
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Works by newcomers Ann Cory (left), Janet Mitchell (below) and Indy Behrendt (right) are among those featured in this year’s Camano Island Studio Tour.
Theresa Goffredo / The Herald
Ann Cory shows one of her recent acrylic paintings. Cory’s work will be included in this weekend’s Camano Island Studio Tour.
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