PORTLAND – Watercolors by artist and author Doris Anne Holman, who taught at Cottrell School for 20 years and at Monmouth Middle School for seven, are on display through June at The Gallery at Longfellow Square.

“Watercolors Runs” achieves what the show’s name suggests – Holman’s washy and vibrant watercolors run down the pictures in impressionistic fashion. The show is made up predominantly of framed watercolor boards that allow the color to stay on top, providing layers of glazing that accentuate the color. Holman also uses watercolor mixed with gesso and ink to accent the translucent nature of watercolor.

The artist expresses her unique vision in diverse seascapes, landscapes and paintings of flowers and wildlife seen in her travels. This is her most mature and original work.

A professional artist for more than 40 years, Holman raised her four children in Wayne and now lives in Harspwell and winters in Zephyrhills, Fla.

She taught watercolor for 10 years in Winthrop Adult Ed in the 1970s and in the Community Arts Program in Augusta for an additonal 10 years. She ran watercolor workshops at Monhegan Island, Pemaquid Point, Rockland, Camden, Bar Harbor and other coastal locations for many years.

When she retired, her art and reading background – she has a master’s degree in reading – led her to start writing children’s books and illustrating them in watercolor. She has written and published 11 children’s books plus “Watercolor Sparkles,” a how-to book for her students. Her most recent Maine book, “Come with me to the Pond,” features paintings of Androscoggin Lake.

Concerned with the loss of habitat for many animals, she has written books with that theme such as “Mandy and Sally Manatee,” “Ollie the Little Burrowing Owl,” “Oscar the River Otter” and “The Old Fisherman and the Pelican.”

Holman operates Round the Corner Art Gallery on Orrs Island, which is open weekends in the summer months. She also visits schools in Maine and Florida as a guest artist.

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