By Clarisse Kim
Unlike a typical Sunset home, Dorothy Weintraub’s garage is not just a parking spot for a car or a stash of retired furniture. Light filters in through the window and the wide-open door, but these beams don’t highlight cobwebs and dust. Instead, they set the walls ablaze with a glow reflected from more than 120 paintings.
An amalgamation of fuchsia, green, turquoise and blue clusters at the edges of this impromptu studio, each canvas depicting cheerful scenes of gifted flower bouquets, hometown lakes and San Francisco’s natural atmosphere.
At the back of the garage lies the key to the maelstrom of artwork. Perched on a chair with a well-worn smock, an artist works on her latest of countless pieces with deft flicks of her brush. Her palette, a repurposed piece of cardboard with piles of dried caked-on paint, show markings of a veteran with decades of color theory under her belt.
This garage is the studio of 96-year-old Dorothy (affectionately nicknamed Dottie) Weintraub. Lined against the walls is the latest part of her painting collection, most of them painted in the latter half of her 15 years in San Francisco.
“She’ll paint every day for hours – she can crank out a painting in a couple hours,” said Weintraub’s son, Daniel. “Her art is what’s keeping her alive, I think.”
These paintings are the tip of Weintraub’s art-history iceberg. Her story began almost a century ago, in 1928. Born in Washington, D.C., Weintraub grew up surrounded by art. Her parents were both artists, having met at the Corcoran School of Art. Her childhood was defined by accompanying her parents to various art shows and exploring different visual art mediums under their guidance.
“Art ran in the family,” Weintraub said. “My mother helped me a lot, with drawing and painting.”
Weintraub also recalls her close bond with her mother, a well-known portrait painter at the time. Partially inspired by her mother’s accomplishments in the art community, Weintraub went off to pursue a major in art from Syracuse University and continued to pursue graduate work at American University on the East Coast. Eventually, Weintraub enrolled in George Washington University as a member of their inaugural art therapy program. She became a registered art therapist, working at a community mental health center for around 20 years.
“She was one of the first art therapists in the country, if not in the world,” Daniel said. “The method was unheard of at the time.”
According to Weintraub, her art therapy sessions play out similar to a typical therapy session, but with a canvas added to the mix. Her patients would be instructed to paint and then share their feelings, using their artwork as a conduit for discussion and emotional processing.
“She once told me that there was this one kid who drew a picture of his family,” Weintraub’s current partner, Larry Bernard, said. “His family was all there in the center, but he painted himself going out the door.”
“I loved my work, but it was hard. Some patients had very difficult lives,” Weintraub said. “I could get a lot of information from their drawings – things they didn’t realize about themselves.”
According to Daniel, his mother’s work sometimes took a heavy emotional toll, but she was determined to see her patients heal.
“Most of them got better in the end,” Weintraub said, “Some of them started painting on their own.”
Alongside her career as an art therapist, Weintraub continued to paint on her days off. Her works have been exhibited in numerous Washington, D.C. galleries, including Cosmos Club and The Potter’s House.
In 2008, Weintraub met Bernard, a then-municipal railway employee. A year later, in 2009, Dottie left her lakeside home in Virginia and moved to San Francisco with Bernard. She continued her art therapy work as a volunteer at the Golden Gate Senior Services’ Homeless Prenatal Program until 2014; she also continued her studio artwork as a member of the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. Until recently, Weintraub enjoyed painting scenery in Golden Gate Park
Now, although home-bound, Weintraub’s artistic view knows no limits. Every day, Bernard helps Weintraub brave the 44 stairs from her house to her studio, where she paints for hours.
Supplied with photos taken by Daniel, who moved to San Francisco in April of 2024, as well as gift bouquets from neighbors, Weintraub has a wide range of artistic subjects. Using her current favorite painting medium, acrylic (with the occasional watercolor or pastel on rainy days), Weintraub loves to paint flowers and pictures of her childhood lake.
As Weintraub approaches this latest chapter of her life, her goal is simple: to continue her practice every day.
“I just want to make beautiful things,” she said.
Daniel and Bernard have similar hopes for Weintraub as well.
“My goal is to see that she can continue to do this for as long as she can,” Bernard said, “She loves her art, and I want her to hold on to that for as long as possible, whatever that takes.”
“She’s got a real purpose in life, creating this artwork,” Daniel said. “I’d love for people to come by and appreciate it, maybe buy a piece to hang in their living room. I hope her art can be displayed in people’s homes for everyone to enjoy.”
Weintraub resides with Bernard at 1395 16th Ave., at the corner of 16th Avenue and Judah Street. Her studio is open to all visitors from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Community members can support her work by buying her paintings. Large paintings sell for around $50, while smaller works sell for around $30.
