For thirty years, Otis was a part-time instructor of both beginners and advanced art students, some five hundred of whom went on to become professional artists. Since he derived a steady income from the sale of his art work, Otis was never required to teach full time. He did, however, have deep convictions about art education: "From the start one must teach the student self-respect and faith in himself." He also believed that he, as instructor, should consider himself as just "another student, a little more able to guide, and as a friend to the aspiring artist, rather than a critic or a pedantic teacher."⁵ He gave up teaching in 1939 but was always available to advise and assist other artists. ⁶

 

George Demont Otis was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 21, 1879, the youngest of three children of George and Etta Otis. His father, a railroad engineer, was killed in a train wreck two weeks after his birth, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was sent to live with an aunt in Sedalia, Missouri, but at age twelve, was placed by his relatives in the home of a Chicago family. His artistic talent was discovered early, and at fourteen he entered the Chicago Fine Art Academy.⁷ His art education was continued at the Chicago Art Institute, the Philadelphia Academy of Arts, the National Academy of Arts, the National Academy of Design in New York, the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy, and Woodstock School of Painting of White Plains, New York, the Cooper Institute in New York, and the Art Students League of New York.⁸

 

Early in his life Otis had a promising career in baseball, spending two years as a pitcher with the Nashville and Memphis clubs of the Southern Association. He used his earnings to finance additional art education, and he also produced hundreds of grease-pencil drawings. When his commissions for paintings increased, he decided to give up baseball and concentrate on art.⁹ Otis returned to Chicago in 1900 and spent the next fourteen years as instructor, stage scenery designer, art restorer, and art appraiser. He worked on curtains, drapes, and side wings at the Opera House in Chicago, and was also associated with other opera houses and theatres in the Midwest and East.¹⁰

 

When he became ill in 1916, he was advised by a prominent Chicago physician to leave the city. Upon arriving in Colorado, he set up a studio in an old barn at Estes Park, "gateway to the Rockies." He painted scenes of Bryce and Zion Canyons in Utah and the scenery of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. His work during the years in Colorado won many awards. Otis became interested in the Indian tribes of the Southwest–Hopi, Navajo, Yuma, Isleta, Acoma, Taos, and Pima. He gained their trust and a limited knowledge of their languages. Some two hundred watercolors resulted from his study of the daily life of these peoples.¹¹

 

Wanderings in 1919 took Otis to Southern California, where he fell in love with the climate and the scenery. He appreciated the fact that outdoor painting there could be done all year round. In 1924, he moved to a mission-style house in Burbank, set up a studio, and became active in the art community in Los Angeles. Employed as a scene designer by the movie industry, Otis worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and film mogul Louis B. Mayer. He became very much a part of the Hollywood social scene and developed a friendship with silent-screen comedian Buster Keaton.¹²

 

The strain of the social life and pressures of work in Hollywood caused Otis to re-evaluate what he wanted in life. He abruptly left, deserting an art collection, personal effects, and problems in order to get back to nature. His adventurous spirit led him back to the Southwest–to New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado.¹³

 

After a year and a half of wandering, Otis settled at the San Francisco studio of the former sculptor Arthur Putnam, just across from Golden Gate Park. Otis was through with traveling, and met at this time his future wife, Clara Van Tine, a businesswoman from San Francisco. They were married in Reno on November 25, 1931, by Judge Thomas F. "Barney" Moran,¹⁴ who was a cousin of the painter Thomas Moran, one of Otis's closest friends.¹⁵

 

During the summers of 1932 and 1933, Otis and his wife returned to Northern Nevada to avoid the cold and fog of the Bay Area. In those two stays, Otis executed many paintings and etchings of the Carson Valley, Pyramid Lake, Lake Tahoe, Mogul, Carson City, and Virginia City. He had a small studio in Virginia City but came to Reno to market his works. They set up a simple wooden stand, and many pieces were sold to divorcees.¹⁶

 

The Nevada landscapes follow in the mold of Otis's previous works, demonstrating richness of color and a great love of trees. His interest in native Americans and Pyramid Lake reappeared, specifically in three beautiful landscapes that focus on the lake. Their titles speak of life on the reservation: An Indian Home, Boats to Let, and Fisher Folks.¹⁷

 

Cottonwood and poplar trees figure prominently in many of the Nevada paintings. Otis loved trees, and they appear again and again in his landscapes. He believed that they represented "God's greatest work."¹⁸  A former student, George Roberts, recalled that his mentor loved trees and was known for the way he painted them. Otis had described them thus: "Trees express the wind. They keep the earth from being a desolate place. They graciously furnish a cooling spot in their shade. They feed the hungry with their fruits and act untiringly as sentinels and landmarks. They are living things. Paint them that way."¹⁹

 

Otis's interest in Nevada seems to have waned after 1933; he and Clara had become engrossed in the construction of their house and studio in Kentfield in Marin County, where he spent the rest of his life.²⁰ He painted in the San Francisco Bay Area, but was particularly attracted to the Muir Woods, Lagunitas Creek, and Mount Tamalpais during this period.

 

Otis's last association with Nevada occurred in 1946 in connection with the final three Fleischmann dioramas. In 1944 Fleischmann had engaged Frank Tose, director of exhibits at the California Academy of Science, to design and install dioramas of the principal Nevada mammals for the Nevada State Museum. Tose was taken ill in October 1944, and died in November.²¹ His