doris hall pittman 1916 – 2004

https://jwpittman.wixsite.com/blackdune

From her notebooks:

"Strive for a reduction of form to create paintings that do not declare themselves but operate in a realm of intense feeling."

"You need not offer an exact replica of what you see, but slice through the layers and let yourself be sensitive to the intrinsic character of what interests you. Look for the impact, the thing that interested you in the first place then let your impulses and imagination take over to take your painting past a mere delineation of what is  before you."

"Leave something to the imagination. Talking too much with the brush is boring."

Doris was born in Allen, TX, grew up in Dallas and attended Texas Women’s University in Denton, Tx. She moved with her family to Corpus Christi, Tx. where she first taught art then had a professional career as an artist for an advertising agency. She had her own one-woman agency before retiring.

From the 1950s on she established herself as a respected watercolorist and later abstract artist in the coastal bend. She was a member of the South Texas Art League, Southwest Watercolor, Texas Fine Arts Association, Texas Watercolor Society, and the Art Community Center of Corpus Christi. She exhibited and won awards for all of these organizations as well as numerous solo or collective exhibits. Her paintings are in several permanent collections including the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the Lubbock Art Museum, and the Art Museum of South Texas.

In 1968 she was one of three artists invited to participate in the dedication of Padre Island National Seashore by Lady Bird Johnson. The artists each presented the First Lady with watercolors painted at the ceremony.

For most of her career she worked en plein air with Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico being her favored subject. She also painted at Big Bend and New Mexico. In the 1990s she returned to school at A&M University of Corpus Christi to study with Antonio Garcia. This began her period of large oil and acrylic abstractions which she continued for the rest of her life.

She took what she saw and by reducing the form she transformed nature into paintings that don't declare themselves, they become expressions of intense feelings.

Doris passed away in 2004 due to Alzheimer's and dementia. A portion of sales will be donated to Alzheimer's Texas: https://www.txalz.org/ and to the Central Texas Food Bank: https://www.centraltexasfoodbank.org/



Awards (Partial List)

1960 South Texas Art League, Corpus Christi, Texas, 3rd place in casein

1961 South Texas Art League 3rd award in watercolor

1962 South Texas Art League, 1st watercolor, 2nd and 3rd honorable mentions

1962 South Texas Art League, 1st watercolor, 2nd and 3rd honorable mentions

1964 TFAA Spring Jury Show, Austin Purchase Prize by Lubbock Art Museum

1964 Texas Watercolor Society Current Circuit Show

1965 Texas Watercolor Society Broadway National Bank

1968 Painted at dedication of Padre National Seashore (presented to First Lady L. B. Johnson)

1969 TFAA Circuit Exhibition

1970 South Texas Art League 2nd place in watercolor

1970 Art Community Center Dimension Show, 3rd place

1972 South Texas Art League Citation Show, 3rd place in watercolor

1973 Exhibited in Texas Watercolor 3rd annual

1975 South Texas Art League Citation Show, 3rd in watercolor

1976 TRI-Group Show, honorable mention

1977 ACC Dimension Show, 2nd place in watercolor

1978 Solo Show, Corpus Christi Art Museum

1978Watercolor Southwest Three Houston Merit Award

1978 Western Watercolor, Houston

1994 Texas Watercolor Society, Louise Cadillac Award

2003 Solo Show, Art Center of Corpus Christi