Kushner’s gestural landscapes of the 1950s and 1960s were primarily influenced by Hans Hofmann and Paul Cézanne. Erle Loran’s book, Céanne’s Compositions, became Dorothy’s bible. Her copy of was often out in the studio and she frequently consulted it for inspiration. Loran emphasized Cézanne’s use of directionality of form to lead the eye around the composition and Dorothy followed this lead. After studying directly with Richards Ruben, who had been a student of Hans Hofmann, her landscapes became more abstracted.

She was fascinated by Cézanne’s use of warmer and cooler hues of the same colors. One can see his chromatic influence on her subsequent landscapes with her flurries of warm and cool greens, blues, browns, with small accents of warm hues. She became adept at combining color out of the tube with an entire range of mixed color compliments. She often said that her greatest strength was as a colorist.