Blue Monday, c. 1935, oil

Fabrication Platform, Everett Housing Project, 1942, watercolor

Dorothy Rising was one of Seattle's most accomplished artists and her career spanned over eight decades. Born in Tacoma, Rising attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and also studied with Henry G. Keller at the Cleveland Art Institute. Keller was a very influential teacher whose most famous student was Charles Burchfield. Keller and his students favored watercolor and other water based mediums which had a lasting influence on Rising.

She also studied at the University of Washington where she received her B.F.A. and M.F.A.
Rising’s interest in Modernism stemmed from her studies with Keller who had exhibited at the Armory Show in 1913. This approach was reinforced at the UW working under Walter Isaacs and Ambrose Patterson, both of whom had international reputations.

Dorothy Rising mastered several mediums including oil, watercolor and printmaking. She was an early member of the Northwest Printmakers Society and was included in their first exhibition in 1929. She was also a longtime member and former President of Women Painters of Washington. In 1940, she, along with two other women artists, Vara Grube and Florence Nesbit (both WPW members), formed the Northwest Watercolor Society which is still active after 60 years.

Her work has been featured in many local and national exhibitions including the Smithsonian, the Masillon Museum in Ohio, as well as juried exhibitions in New York, Massachusetts, Oklahaoma, Alaska and other western states. Locally, she was a frequent exhibitor at the Henry Gallery, the Seattle Art Museum where she had a solo exhibition in 1946, and the Frye Museum.
Rising became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Artists, London, and was a member of the National League of American Penwomen and the American Artists Professional League.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Northwest Museum of Art & Culture, Spokane, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, the Grumbacher Collection, the Dave & Reba Williams Collection, NYC and numerous public and private collections.

Her work is included in the Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West; The Sight of Music (Print research Foundation) and Who Was Who in American Art. Rising published numerous art related articles in Sunset Magazine, the Town Crier and other educational publications.