Dee Smith

Art Dee Smith After 10 years as a self-directed, single mom and start-up artist, Valerie Thomson feels she has it pretty much figured out. “It” for Valerie means “life as a successful painter.”
Granted, her career path has meant thousands of hours of hard work, discipline she wasn’t sure she possessed, and nail-biting risk-taking. But this Northern Michigan native has found her groove and is enjoying the rewards. The lessons learned along the way are ones she freely shares
with customers as they browse “Valerie – Studio & Fine Art Gallery” in Petoskey’s Gaslight District.  
Describing her paintings as impressionistic landscapes and still lifes created in the style of the masters from the 1890s, Thomson might be able to draw a parallel between her work and other aspects of life.  
“If a painting is not working in the first 15 minutes, I tell students and aspiring artists, destroy it. Just start over,” said Thomson.  “Painting should be enjoyable.  So, scrape that canvas clean and try it again. It took me awhile to figure this out … that big empty canvas can be very intimidating.”