Of the many places Sandford Birdsey loved to paint, Key West ranked first.

"Key West has the best colors, she used to say," said her son, Paul "Pablo" McGrail.

Friends and family on Tuesday shared stories of Birdsey in her apartment on the second floor of her studio, Sign of Sandford. Considered a matriarch among many in the Key West art scene, Birdsey died in her home Monday after an 18-month battle against heart disease. She was 85.

The Macon, Ga., native has lived at 328 Simonton St. since 1981, when she set up her studio there. She moved in the upstairs apartment where she painted many of her now-famous watercolors, which later would appear in Time magazine, The New York Times and the Whitney Museum in New York, among many others.

"She lived here for 10 years without AC," McGrail said. "She always said the air was too cold. Last night the AC went out before she passed. It was weird, like the AC went with her."

The apartment was still littered with paintbrushes, cans and easels, though illness kept Birdsey from painting the last year, McGrail said. Her last show was in February at the Curry Mansion.

Paintings that were not bought by international collectors often made their way to local businesses, including the Hyatt Key West Resort and Spa, Southernmost Hotel and the Curry Mansion. Her paintings also have made their way to famous private galleries such as the John F. Kennedy and Phillip Morris collections.

Birdsey was the first woman to be accepted into the prestigious American Society of Marine Artists.

"They didn't know that Sandford was a woman because of the name," McGrail said. "Of course, her work spoke for itself. She was also a founding member of the Key West Art Center. She was respected by a lot of collectors."

Rollin McGrail, her daughter from Wellington, followed her mother's path in the art world and works as an illustrator for Vogue, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times and many other publications.

"A huge inspiration," McGrail said as she looked over her mother's work in her Key West studio Tuesday. "I've been painting with my mom since I can remember."

Birdsey studied art in New York and Europe before settling in the Southernmost City, where she became known as the "Southernmost Mom" among many fledgling artists. Birdsey is well-known locally for her annual "Paint Key West" seminars, in which she taught her trade to locals and tourists alike.

Key West watercolorist Martha dePoo was a student in those workshops and credits Birdsey with helping instill in her the confidence to pursue art as a career.

"She and I went to Portugal once and she was in her 70s at the time," dePoo said. "She would sit there in the full sun for six hours at a time painting when everyone else had given up or gone for shade -- this is a woman in her 70s. She lived to paint. She loved to paint and I think she imparted that in her students."

Key West artist Rick Worth said no one can replace Birdsey in the local art community.

"She had a no-frills approach to painting, kind of like my no-frills approach in terms of showing people how it can be done," Worth said. "But she also had a very specific stroke that made it look easy. And that takes years of tone and work. I admired her for that. I tried to take her spirit in my teaching -- that spirit of spreading the art, spreading the knowledge."

At Birdsey's request, her ashes will be scattered in the Key West Channel. Funeral arrangements are pending.

alinhardt@keysnews.com