Doreen Bates began studying art and painting over 40 years ago. She finally began entering local art competitions in 1990 in upstate New York (at the urging of family and friends) and her subsequent success encouraged her to start selling her work and “paint obsessively,” she says. Her first love was acrylics, but she began experimenting with oils in 1998. She now tries to divide her painting time between the mediums equally, preferring acrylics for the fine, crisp detail she likes for her bird and wildlife paintings, and choosing oils for her landscapes.
     Doreen also works in polymer clay to create unique and beautiful jewelry, which she sells locally. Her paintings, jewelry, and native American crafts have won numerous awards. Doreen says, “I am positively driven to create. I believe that God-given gifts should be used, and my goal is to leave behind as much beauty and as many smiles as I possibly can.”
     Doreen has lived in Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Virginia, and New York before falling in love with the Tennessee River Valley on a visit here in 1996. She now resides permanently in Tennessee, although her work reflects all the places she has lived.

     She is currently an instructor at the Lee School Academy for the Arts in Paris, Tennessee where she teaches drawing and acrylic painting for young people.