Dorothy Bigger Biography

Dorothy Bigger grew up in Southern California and rural Washington State.  In 1952, Dorothy moved to The Territory of Alaska (before it was a US state) with her military husband, William, and their children. 

 

Thriving in the natural beauty all around her, Dorothy taught ceramics, dug her own clay for her earthenware pieces, collected found objects to incorporate into her hand-built pottery and worked on the pottery wheel.  She fired the pieces herself, and was particularly interested in reproducing the look of ancient pottery glazes. 

 

In 1960, Dorothy moved to Virginia with her family. Inspired again by nature, she began concentrating more on her watercolor technique, searching for ways to incorporate ‘found’ pigment into her work. This involved roaming the forests that existed at that time around Washington DC to collect plants, and to sketch the, now lost, landscape.

 

Dorothy found a permanent home in Carmel, California in 1964, after her husband retired from the military. There she found a supportive like-minded community and an art movement that mirrored her own style. She eagerly joined Carmel’s community of artists and studied under Robert Wood, George Post, Rex Brant, Millard Sheets and Milford Zornes to name a few of her favorites from a long list of contemporaries.

 

In addition to watercolors, Dorothy was an accomplished Batik and fabric artist. She studied under Harry Conley, an internationally known Batik artist.  

 

She painted extensively throughout the continental USA, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Europe and China.

 

Dorothy Bigger’s work has exhibited in New York City, California, Oregon, Washington State, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, and is collected all over the world.

 

She was featured in the 1990's documentary, Longtimers, about artists on the Monterey Peninsula.