Dixie Cooley, Clearwater Bay, 1948. Watercolor, 15 by 22 inches.
Dixie Cooley was one of the leading artists of Tarpon Springs. Taking inspiration from Florida’s jungles and swamps she produced imaginative, personal interpretations of the Florida scene. A review of Cooley’s work for an exhibit in Lakeland at Florida Southern College in November-December of 1948 reads: “The ‘Deep South’ with its elemental simplicity and vivid coloration has been lovingly portrayed by Dixie Cooley. She has consistently refused to accede to the modern faddisms, and avoided extremes in her work, preferring to blaze her own pathway. Her brush has caught the unhampered spirit of the ‘Smokies’ and the dank deep waters of Florida with equal ardor.
A native of Georgia, she truly interprets the poetic beauty of the unfrequented spots of the South. In appraising the talent of Dixie Cooley, art critics have first noted her simple approach to her subject and the direct forceful method of her technique and superb delineation. She chose water colors as her favorite medium because it enables her to place her spontaneous impressions of the breath taking beauty of Florida. Great imagination, dignity, and warmth are the keynotes of her Southern series which should make many friends for her and the Clearwater, Florida territory, she now calls home.” Cooley was nationally known as one of the best Southern artists.
In November of 1952, the Art Club of St. Petersburg honored her with a reception and tea and a one woman exhibit. In December 1952 the Key West Art and Historical Society, opened an exhibit of her work. The Key West Citizen, December 1, 1952: “The artist was born in Georgia but now maintains a studio in Clearwater, Florida and Chattanooga, Tennessee… ‘I like almost equally well to paint a fish house in far away little fishing villages of Florida. Lone palms scraping their fronds in the Florida breeze, the torrid plains, or the ranches so full of wild life they resembled the African valley’…There is something in the way she paints…which suggests the rhythm of poetry.”
Died: December 29, 1956, Tarpon Springs.
Education: Sophie Newcomb College; Art Students League, NYC; with Alexander Brook; with Frank Balsden, University of Chattanooga.
Membership: Clearwater Art Museum; Clearwater Art Group; Florida Artist Group; Sarasota Art Association; Art League of Manatee County, 1953-56; Florida Federation of Art; American Watercolor Society; Allied Artists of America; Pen and Brush Club; National Association of Women Artists; Southern States Art League.
Exhibits: Florida Federation of Art, annual circuit, 1946; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 6th Annual, nation wide circuit, July 1947-May 1948, watercolors, The Lagoon, Late Shadows; Florida Southern College, Lakeland, November-December 1948, twenty watercolors, The Deep South; Miami Women’s Club Award, for work most representational of Florida, January 1949, Crystal River, selected for Florida Federation of Art, annual circuit, 1949; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1949, grand prize, watercolor, Florida landscape; Sarasota Art Association, at Ringling Museum, 1st exhibit, 1949, Day’s End, Evening Shadow; Florida Gulf Coast Group, sponsorship, Clearwater Art Museum, 7th Annual nationwide circuit, July 1948 to May 1949, watercolor, Bream Lake; Sarasota Art Association, Cain Building, December 1948, watercolor, Summer in Arkansas; Fort Myers Beach, American Legion Hall, January 1949; Florida Gulf Coast Group, 8th Annual Exhibition, Clearwater Art Museum, on nationwide circuit, July 1949 to May 1950, watercolor, Days End; Clearwater Art Group Gallery, March 1951, One Woman Show; Art Club of St. Petersburg, November, 1952, one woman show; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3rd Annual National Competitive Exhibition, New York City, July 1952, High and Dry, one of eleven Florida artists selected for exhibition; East Martello Tower, Key West, one woman show, December 1952; Clearwater Art Group, at Pinellas County Welcome Center, Huffman’s Corner, Gulf Coast Highway, January 1953; Clearwater Art Group, Contemporary Arts Gallery, Pinellas Park, 1954; Ridge Art Gallery, Winter Haven, March 1955, one woman show; Florida Artist Group, 6th Annual, Palm Beach Art League, April 1955, Under Five Flags; Clearwater Art Group, 6th Annual, March 1955, best local watercolor; Clearwater Art Group, 7th Annual Juried Exhibit, Clearwater Chamber of Commerce, March 1956, honorable mention, Then Came the Night; Clearwater Art Group and Florida Gulf Coast Art Center Gallery, February 1957, Memorial Exhibition.
