At 101, some of the senses Dorothy Rosenthal uses to perceive the world around her have dulled with age.

Her hearing, for instance, is not the greatest. It’s important for visitors to face her while talking, so she can read their lips.

Her memory, too, sputters from time to time, and she will repeat the story of her trip to Europe she took as a young school teacher until she is reminded she has already told it.

But even though Rosenthal — known to family and friends as Dotty — is on the far side of the century mark, an essential aspect of who she is has remained undiminished.

Dotty Rosenthal is still an artist.

Every couple of weeks, the native New Yorker can be found seated at her kitchen table in the Lawrence apartment she shares with her daughter, Jane Live, 61.

There, accompanied by her aide, Sondy Sloan, and equipped with the requisite art supplies, Rosenthal puts brush to paper and does what she’s done for the past 25 to 30 years: She paints.

Picture after picture. Seascapes, mostly. Rosenthal seems to return again and again to boats, deep-blue bodies of water, simple figures of people or basic structures at the water’s edge.

The pictures Rosenthal turns out these days represent only her most recent output. She has been painting as an amateur — just for the joy of it, the pure love of it — since the 1970s, when she started renting studio space from other artists in New York City and began to work regularly to develop her craft.

Dotty Rosenthal, 101, who still actively paints, will have a show of her work displayed at the Lawrence Public Library this month. The show also includes paintings from Rosenthal's deceased husband, Leonard.

Thanks to Live, Lawrence residents have had the opportunity in recent years to view examples of artwork by both of her parents — her father, Leonard “Lenny” Rosenthal, died in 1987 at age 78 — with some pieces dating back decades.

The work of Dotty and Lenny Rosenthal was exhibited in 2001 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt., and Dotty had a solo show in 2002 at Aimee’s Coffee House, 1025-A Mass.

An exhibition of 45 works by the Rosenthals opened Tuesday in the library’s gallery and will be displayed through March 30.

Most of Dotty’s abstract pieces in the show are oil paintings, which she has produced since the late 1970s. But seven of her contributions are acrylics, done since she moved to Lawrence in 2000. Eighteen of the paintings and drawings in the exhibit were done by Lenny.

Many of the works had long been in storage with relatives in New York, with Live receiving the most recent batch of paintings last June.

“When I got them, I was so overwhelmed by the quality, and I realized there was an abundance of paintings that needed to be shown. I wanted to share them with people because they are wonderful artwork,” said Live, who has worked part time for the past 10 years as an administrative assistant in Kansas University’s department of music and dance.

Dotty has a humble attitude about the current show that includes her work.

“If it’s all right with the library, it’s all right with me,” she said.

Began to take it seriously

Jane Live, left, shares a laugh with her 101-year-old mother, Dotty Rosenthal. Live is the primary caregiver for Rosenthal, who has her artwork on display at the Lawrence Public Library.

Dotty is largely a self-taught artist, fueled through the years by an enjoyment of the creative process itself.

Before she decided to rent studio space from other artists, she had taken some beginner’s art classes, mostly downplaying her efforts.

Along with working full time as a second-grade teacher in a New York public school for 35 years, she mainly devoted her energies to raising a daughter and nurturing relationships with her five siblings and their children.

Lenny, according to Live, was considered the real artist in the family.

He painted at home and at art schools, took classes at the 92nd Street YMCA and was a founder and president of the New York Transit Authority’s Art Assn. His art appeared on subway platforms and in community shows for 20 years.

It wasn’t until Dotty retired that she began to take her painting seriously. In contrast to her husband’s representational art, she evolved into an abstract artist, applying oils on paper with a palette knife.

She became a member of the prestigious Pen and Brush Club in New York and a regular exhibitor there from 1985 to 1999.

Her ‘sloppy work’

In 2000, Dotty took the courageous step — for a 96-year-old — of moving from New York City to Lawrence to be with her daughter.

The walls of the apartment that Dotty and Live share are covered with framed paintings and drawings by both of Live’s parents.

Even at 101, Dotty has not yet produced her last work.

Once every week or two, Sloan, her personal aide, gets Dotty set up at the kitchen table with an easel, paper and daubs of acrylic paint, and the two women go to work.

“She has inspired me to paint. I’m hoping to be an artist,” said Sloan, 42, who is earning her bachelor’s degree in English literature at KU. She has been with Dotty since 2002.

“She is the most gracious elderly person I have ever met. She’s my adopted grandmother.”

Continuing to paint is a good activity for her mother, Live said.

“It keeps her together more than she would be otherwise. But she’s happy no matter what — reading a book, playing solitaire or painting.”

Though Dotty has received many plaudits for her work, she has remained modest about it.

“My husband was a painter, and I began to paint and I liked it. I never became really good. I call it my sloppy work,” she said.

“I just enjoy doing it. If it looks like something, I’m so surprised.”