Artist Doris Anne Holman, of Monmouth, a watercolorist and retired Maine art teacher, recently was recognized with a lifetime achievement award and included in the “Lifetime of Achievement: Collection of Prestigious Listees” (Volume II) – one of 125 inductees, according to a news release from The Marquis Who’s Who.

The Marquis Who’s Who annual compendium included lifetime achievement recognition for 14 disciplines, from Arts and Architecture to Education, Engineering, Finance, Law and Medicine. Holman was recognized personally for her “lifetime achievement” as an artist, education and author.

The personal profile credits Holman’s “60 years of experience” in teaching and art, with a professional history of showing her artwork “in such venues as the Birds Nest Gallery, The Pine Tree Kiln, the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset, the Ladybug Gallery of Fine Art on Monhegan,” as well as having “contributed to exhibitions at the Artworks Gallery” (Readfield), “Light Impressions Gallery” (Rockland), and “Round the Corner Gallery” (Brunswick). She also showed at the Talent Tree Art Gallery (formerly in Augusta), according to the release.

A member of the Maine Arts Commission, she has won a Percent For Award ( “Foggy Day”), as well as numerous awards in and out of state, including the Sara Fogelson Award (1976), Cape Elizabeth Show Award (1982), and recognitions at Portland’s Sidewalk Art Show and other regional shows, displayed up and down the Atlantic Coast, was selected to show with Vincent Hartgen (director of U. Maine Museum of Art, 36 years) and Frances Hammabe (Farnsworth Art Museum instructor, and Art Director for Down East Magazine), and has placement honors from the University of South Florida, Yankee General Gallery (Gloucester, Massachusetts), Bangor Art Society, and Old Orchard Beach Art Center. She is featured in both Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women.

As an art teacher, she went from teaching in Monmouth and adults in Winthrop, to conducting workshops in Bermuda, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. As an artist-writer of children’s books, she authored has more than ten nature and watercolor-focused children’s books, combining a concern for ecology, conservation and wildlife with bright, engaging watercolor illustrations.

Her first and most well-known book is “Come with Me to the Sea” (2004), which has sold widely into schools, libraries and other venues. Her “Watercolor Sparkles” (2001) instruction volume has also seen wide distribution in and out of Maine. In 2019, three of her watercolors were accepted into the permanent collection at Goucher College, and her work is currently showing at The Fine Art Gallery, run by Cindy Pettengill, Main Street in Wayne.

Contacted for comment at her Monmouth home, where she and her husband Berne live – and where she still paints daily – she said, “it is an honor to be recognized for something one enjoys doing … and I have always loved teaching, painting and writing for children,” adding “I cannot think of anything more wonderful to do with time, than to spend it creating, laughing and teaching others how to do both with a sense of peace and confidence,” according to the release.