New career as artist begins post-retirement

Jane Doty didn’t teach art as a career. She was a teacher of the gifted and talented in a K-12 school in Wilton, Iowa. She always dabbled in painting but it wasn’t until she retired in 2013 that she began to paint more and told herself, “I’m going to get a little more serious about this.” 

With a friend’s encouragement, she displayed her paintings at the Sunrise River Gallery in Muscatine. In 2017, one of the gallery owners recommended Jane to the Merrill Hotel in Muscatine for commission work. The first was an abstract of buttons. The hotel made artistic prints for every restroom in the hotel. They also liked her abstract of the local Norbert F. Beckey Bridge and it is displayed in all the queen suites. You can see her work on the hotel’s website, www.TheMerrill.com. “It was an awesome experience,” says Jane. 

Jane also had a display at the Bucktown Center for the Arts in downtown Davenport until the center closed in 2020. She also had her own gallery space in Wilton, The Painted Owl, until the pandemic hit. It was a place to sell her paintings, work in a studio, and teach. 

Jane grew up in Cedar Falls and met her husband Norm at UNI. After 42 years in Durant, they moved back to Cedar Falls in 2022 and chose Windridge as their home. “We like the progression here. It’s a gift to our children so they don’t have to worry about us,” Jane explains.  

Jane rents space at the Rownd Barn and spends a couple of hours a week painting. Her favorite subjects to paint in oil are pets and landscapes. The angel in her guest room was inspired by her mother, as was the painting on her violin of yellow swallowtail butterflies. This year, Jane also sold her work at the Handcrafted Holiday Show & Sale. “It was fun. I loved talking to people and I didn’t care if I sold anything.” 

“Painting is quiet time, soothing and satisfying. I enjoy the entire process. If you want to start painting, keep your expectations low and just dive in,” she encourages. “Have fun with it and paint what you like.”

Jane's painting of a reindeer and Christmas trees is nestled behind her collection of bottle brush trees.

An angel and yellow swallowtail butterflies honor her mother.