Verlee Dowd Jones, a graduate of Stetson University, is a retired business teacher-turned-artist.  She and her husband, Ed, moved to Hiawassee from Florida in 1994.

Always experimenting with different types of surfaces, Verlee works with oil, acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil.  She specializes in batik painting on Japanese Rice Paper and shares that in her classes and in demonstrations at various art guilds and clubs.   She  also enjoys decorative painting on wood, glass, tin, and masonite. 

Her painting “Snow Forest in Fall” was featured in the December 2005 issue of “Watercolor  Magic.” She won “Best of Show” in the 2011 and 2015 and 2016 Show & Competition of the Cherokee Trail Decorative Painters.  She has exhibited at the Mableton Art Center in Mableton, Georgia, ArtWorks in Hiawassee, Bowan Gallery, Bascom Gallery in Highlands, the Valley River Gallery in Murphy, NC, the Brasstown Resort Exhibit in Young Harris, GA, and at the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association Art Center in Blue Ridge and at the Arts & Soul Gallery in Blairsville.  She has taught many classes for Young Harris College's ICL.    She was also featured in a 2009 production of “Art in the Mountains,” a local TV Channel Program.  Her painting of a U.S. Coast Guard Ship was accepted in the U. S. Coast Guard’s on-line Art Show.

She is a member of Mountain Regional Arts and Crafts Guild, Valley River Arts Guild, and the Mountain Rose Art Guild, the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Assoc, and the Southern Appalachian Artist Guild.  Besides winning many blue ribbons for her acrylic, oil, color pencils, and watercolor paintings, this Florida transplant has favored her collectors friends, relatives, benefits, and auctions with over 1000 paintings in twelve states and 2 countries.