Dorothy had a disciplined approach to artistic practise and development. Discipline was a quality she valued not just when painting, but held it to be of key importance to an artist’s whole life. Quoting from an unidentified source and writing in January 1969, she noted that “every aspect of your life can enrich you if you personally reflect upon it and make it your own. Take the time to let your daily activity pass before the discerning eye of conscience”. By paying attention to daily life, the artist could build a database of information to fuel the imagination and to help crystallise thought.

This is evident in the notes that Dorothy would take when reflection upon a painting scene. The following, notes from daybreak at Christmas on the road to Devon, is one of many that could have been chosen.

“Clouds on left hand and dark, warm and clear cut against cold sky of daybreak clouds reddish and soft dark. On right blowing sky of fleeting soft vertical light clouds with yellow lamp light moon hanging in soft circle of light clouds. Whole scene tender and thrilling, the air like cold wine. A clarity of a Saturday morning years ago”.

Again, she found support for this idea outside of her own artist realm and once again in that of classical music, misquoting from ‘Treatise on the Flute’ for her own purposes, “those who trust to chance may possibly paint well sometimes, but a well-educated and truly methodical artist will paint well always, although he may, of course, paint on some occasions better than on others”.

Dorothy’s disciplined approach led her to also frequently set herself targets to meet. For example, she resolved to paint “12 pictures – one for each month of the year” and to keep repeating the cycle with different aspects. The subject matter for these series were to be chosen from amongst biblical scenes, flower compositions, landscapes, the occasional portrait and environmental activities month by month as drawn from the imagination and preparatory studies. On another occasion, writing in December 1981, she set out to paint and frame lots of small canvases on any subject, be it landscapes, weather, figure composition, still life and so on.

Whatever the subject matter, the goal was simple and defined; “all as praise and awe of creation and conveying that message to others”. Coupled to this glowing depiction of creation, with its monumentality and timeless durability, Dorothy strove to draw upon “fundamental personal views of life referring back to childhood” in order that “every painting must have a message of deep thought and penetration”. She again pointed to Van Gogh as having captured this quality in his work. Writing in October 1978, she recognised that he had “penetrated into the thing observed and was lost in it, with the essence of reality in the image. He paints the atmosphere and essence of a scene all the time and nothing else”. As Van Gogh had expressed his thinking and self lucidly and clearly with dynamic energy and focus, she also noted that she needed to ““strip a thing down to its bare dramatic essentials. Do not paint wildly, restrain strength by gentleness and an iron will.”

The purpose of art, as Dorothy saw it, is to communicate, not an object or a scene, but a personality, a thought, an emotion; the focus not so much on that which is seen, but on how it is seen. Therefore, it can be said that, to Dorothy, the works of the true artist had a spiritual quality. Indeed, she herself made note of what an unidentified source had written about Rembrandt, “a painter can regard himself as an instrument for pointing out the supernatural which is at the heart of things or as someone who lays bare the spiritual essence of reality and thought” and, from the same source, “he must capture that which does not pass in that which passes”.

Before painting, in order to aid this communication, it is important to consider where and how the painting is to be presented, since as soon as a painting is held within an architectural frame it begins to associate with the structure around it. There is, therefore, a bond between painting, man-made space and sources of light that cannot be ignored. Therefore, while an artist may strive to give the impression of depth by means, for example, of perspective and the juxtaposition of planes, the canvas’ own surface area must also be taken into consideration. As Dorothy claimed, “the essence of a painter’s thoughts comes across first and foremost through the abstract design which is in tune with the surface area; that’s where it lives”.

While it is necessary to consider how a painting will appear within the framing lines of an architectural space, “the importance and impact of line and relationship of lines cannot be overemphasised” within the painting itself. At this juncture in her public lecture, Dorothy emphasised her point by beginning a demonstration, which sketched a few lines on a blank canvas which would be developed into a study of a blue poppy. These few initial lines were very deliberately chosen, as Dorothy herself testified, “It is no accident that this line begins off centre to the left and works its way in a straight curve almost to centre at the top. Using this type of line I felt gave it the greatest feeling of height and of the growing up to reach that height. Pushing the flower at the top, right hard against the boundary edge gives the stem added strength. We’re pushing down on it, so it is resisting”. A second line added to the composition only reached two thirds of the way up the first, again emphasising the height of the original.

Tones are also to be chosen carefully, so as to communicate well. In this example, Dorothy drew upon the preferences of the featured flowers themselves, stating that “if you are familiar with blue poppies, you will know they are happy in damp, shady, woodland places and that they grow tall and straight and carry their heads like a child’s windmill on a stick”. Once these fundamental lines and tones have been captured, the rest of the composition could be gradually added, but in such a way that these initial messages are never weakened or destroyed, but qualified and strengthened. This would be, according to Dorothy, “a proper painterly manner”.