Dorothy Sherman Leech, Sarasota. Watercolor, 13 1/2 by 16 1/2 inches.
Dorothy Leech, the wife of Sarasota artist Hilton Leech, was a well-known muralist, oil and watercolor painter. The Sarasota Herald, February 13, 1939 notes her work, “The watercolors of Dorothy Sherman Leech have a distinct charm all their own and are full of artistic expression. Her small sketch ‘Sleeping Pig’ is unusual and compelling, while ‘Jungle Paths,’ showing a white horse moving along a woodland path, has a poetic feeling which is greatly admired. Mrs. Leech’s work also shows a humorous vein in ‘Newtown Society,’ being Negro gossip over the wash tub. Her most dramatic picture is ‘Los Penitents,’ a striking composition of Indian worshipers performing a religious ceremony. Mrs. Leech was fortunate in being able to use the Ted Shawn dancers, who recently appeared in Sarasota, for her inspiration in this sketch. While watching them perform their ballet Los Penitents, she was able to catch their feeling and movement to interpret an unusual and interesting event.”
A few weeks later Ralph McKelvey reviewed Leech’s work at the Ringling Museum, in the Sarasota Herald February 19, 1939, “Hurricanes are much in evidence in the Sarasota exhibition. Dorothy Sherman (before her marriage to Hilton Leech) in a watercolor that bears evidence of the artist’s sense of humor, shows a flooded and disaster ridden road extending beneath a tangle of fallen telephone wires beyond a road sign in the immediate foreground reading, ‘Maintenance Ends.’ This artist’s versatility might be made the subject of a full length essay. Another of her papers in the watercolor section is a very recent study of the postures of a group of Ted Shawn dancers. Among her oils is the richly pigmented group, ‘Girls Dormitory,’ showing a half dozen negligently clad girl students poring over text books under an overhead light. In the construction of this painting a dozen difficulties have been triumphantly surmounted. The perspective organization of the composition has been accomplished without a detectable flaw, and if this seems easy, try placing five figures in natural postures in a 28 by 36 canvas, making them appear life size and un-crowded. Coming out of the dormitory into the open Dorothy Sherman depicts a rain soaked pavement running past workmen’s cottages to a distant railroad track where an engine belches smoke. Here with a few simple masses she tells a story of squalor and bad weather with an admirable candor.”
In March 1940 she and Marjory Reynolds Sprague completed murals on three panels in the ball room at the new Lido Beach casino. The panels were painted with a Florida jungle motif and carried out the color scheme and modern treatment of the building. Dorothy Leech had sixteen one woman shows in the United States and Canada and received numerous awards in Florida juried exhibitions. Leech has murals in the First Methodist Church in Sarasota, the Hardee County High School in Wauchula, Florida, and the Congregational Church in Rochester, New York. She and her husband Hilton collaborated, in the 1940’s and early 50’s, on murals for the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows, the art work converted to colorful Ringling banners. The couple taught at the Amagansett School of Art in Sarasota and both were honored in 1955 with inclusion in the Ringling Museum Exhibit, Fifty Florida Painters.
Born: 1913, Pittsburg.
Education: Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh; Ringling School of Art.
Membership: Southern States Art League; Palm Beach Art League; Florida Federation of Art; Florida Gulf Coast Artists Group; Sarasota Art Association; Art League of Manatee County.
Exhibits: World’s Fair, New York; Kennedy Galleries, New York; Albright Museum, Buffalo; Montclair Museum, New Jersey; Hickory Museum, North Carolina; 3rd Annual Exhibition of American Art, NYC., 1938; Sarasota Art Association, 10th Annual, March 1938 (exhibiting as Dorothy Sherman, Toronto, Canada); Ringling Museum, 1938, 1st award; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum of Art, February 1939, 1st prize, watercolor, Montauk Junction; Sarasota Art Association, Florida Theater building, March-April 1939, watercolor, Circus Horses at Winter Quarters; Sarasota Art Association, Cain Building, Orange Avenue, Art in Our Town, December 1939; Sarasota Art Association, January 1940, Impressions of Key West; Sarasota Art Association, 10th Annual Members Exhibition, March 1940, Circus Star, Baby (Clydesdales); Florida Watercolor Society, March 1941, Palm Beach, Ranch Yard, Blue Horse, Wild Horse, Pinto and Pony Act; Florida Watercolor Society, 3rd Annual Exhibit, Society of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, January 1941; Clearwater Art Museum, April 22-May 5, 1941, Twelve Florida Artists, Circus Star, Belgian Giant, Circus Horses; Florida Watercolor Society, 1st Exhibit, Palm Beach, December 1941, Mending Nets, Net Truck, Siesta, Montauk Junction; Florida Federation of Art, December 1941, Tampa, Sunday Morning; Florida Federation of Art, Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1941-42, Conches For Sale; Clearwater Art Museum, January 1942, Evening Performance, Uniform Appeal, Key West, Conch Steak, Dress Rehearsal, Pasture, Myakka Range, Three Mile Harbor-Tuesday, Maintenance Ends, Early Mass; Clearwater Art Museum, Florida Gulf Coast Artists Group, 1942, Annual Circuit, Safari, Portrait; Miami Beach Public Library and Art Centrer, Florida Gulf Coast Group exhibit, May 1942; Clearwater Art Museum, Florida Gulf Coast Artist Group, 4th Annual, exhibit toured the state, 1944-1945; Florida Federation of Art, 19th Annual Exhibition, Miami Beach, December 1945, Inez, Pearls; Clearwater Art Museum, Florida Gulf Coast Group, May 1946, Rima; Florida Gulf Coast Group, 4th Annual Exhibition, nationwide circuit, July 1945-May 1946, Net Menders, Florida Range Rider; Sarasota Art Association, 221 South Palm Avenue, Members Exhibit, January 1946, watercolors, The Girls, Ford, Conchs for Sale; Florida Federation of Art, Annual Clearwater, December 1946; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 5th Annual, nationwide circuit, July 1946-May 1947, oil, Rima, watercolor, Lower Myakka; Society of The Four Arts, 9th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1946-January 1947; Sarasota Art Association, Christmas Exhibit, New Galleries, Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, December 1947, Circus, Canadian Spring; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 6th Annual, nationwide circuit, July 1947-May 1948, oils, Sun Tan Oil, Bazaar; Sarasota Art Association, Members Exhibit, January 1948; Art Club of St. Petersburg, February 1948; Sarasota Art Association, Cain Building, December 1948, watercolor, Pinto and Pony; Sarasota Art Association, at Ringling Museum, 1st Exhibit, 1949, Girl with Cat; Sarasota Art Association, winter, 1949, Colored Children’s Day, After the Holidays; Florida Gulf Coast Group, sponsorship, Clearwater Art Museum, 7th Annual nationwide circuit, July 1948 to May 1949, oil, Dryad, Rehearsal Rest, Beach Scene; Sarasota Art Association, Circus Show, March 1949, Enter the Star; University of Tampa, one woman show, December 1949; Florida Gulf Coast Group, 8th Annual Exhibition, Clearwater Art Museum, on nationwide circuit, July 1949 to May 1950, oil, Enter the Star, Colored Children’s Day, watercolor, Girl and Cat; Palm Beach Art League, 32nd Annual Members’ Exhibition, March 1950, oil, Summer Theater; Society of The Four Arts, 13th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1950-January 1951; Sarasota Art Association, 25th Anniversary Year, Members Show, January 1951, Barbara, Mrs. D. M. Stephens; Florida Art Group Gallery, Clearwater, January 1951; Art League of Manatee County, with husband Hilton, January 1953; Art Guild, 1st Exhibit, Tampa, February 1953; Sarasota Art Review Week, March 1953; Manatee County Fair, January 1954, prize; Art Club of St. Petersburg, March 1954, Summer Sunday; Palm Beach Art League, spring, 1954; Ringling Museum of Art, 1955, Fifty Florida Painters, mixed media, Mortal Chrysalis; Florida Artist Group, 6th Annual Circuit, Palm Beach Art League, April 1955, Beads; Art League of Manatee County, All Members Exhibit, October 1955, 209 Ninth St. W. Bradenton, oil, Mortal Chrysalis; Ft. Lauderdale Foundation of Art, 1st Annual, 1955, honorable mention; Florida Artists Group, 5th Annual, Clearwater, 1st prize, oil; Hickory Museum, Hickory, N.C., 1955, one woman show; Manatee County Art Center, January 1-13, 1956, paintings in casein and oil; Hamilton, Ontario, Art Gallery, one woman show; Stevens Gross Studios, Chicago, one woman show; Ringling Museum of Art, Paintings of the Circus, March 1956, Charity Show; Clearwater Art Group, 8th Annual Member’s Exhibit, Gulf Coast Art Center, March 1957, oil, Charity Show; Circus Paintings, toured state, University of Florida to Gulf Coast Art Center, Belleair, 1958; Tampa Art Institute, Green Ribbon, Hindu Ballet, Spring at the Circus, Quick Change, Ladies-Lions and Laughter; Miami Beach Art Center, Summer Theater, Sun Tan Oil, Rehearsal Rest, Summer Sunday, Bazaar, Poppies and Delphiniums; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1959, Love Bird; Art League of Manatee County, Member’s Annual Juried Exhibit, March 1959, Dark Dark Madonna, The Gulls; Sarasota Art Association, 9th Annual, March, 1959, Ringling Museum, The Kite; Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Sarasota, March 1959, Art and Holy Week Exhibit; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Belleair, April May 1959, twenty-nine circus paintings including, Bareback Rider; Governor’s All Florida Art Show, Ringling Museum, January 9-February 2, 1960, casein, Storm Warning; Sarasota Art Association, Members’ Annual Juried Exhibition, February 1960, Sand Box.
Directory: Listed in the Sarasota City Directory, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1958 to 1960 as an artist with studio at 425 Hillview Avenue through 1951, and later at 1666 Hillview.
