Asticou Azalea Garden, designed with the financial support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the late 1950s. Earlier this month, financier David Rockefeller announced that he is giving a thousand acres of land on Mount Desert Island to the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The park at […]

We’ve had a lot of good times in this studio, including swing-dancing model Michelle Long. I am frequently asked, “How do you feel about this move? Are you excited? Sad to leave?” I have loved the 21 years I’ve been in Rochester, but I’m ready to move on. Most of my thinking has been practical, […]

Portrait of a Jack Russell, by Joaquín Sorolla (1909) A reader sent me this Portrait of a Jack Russell, by Joaquín Sorolla (1909). She knows I have an ancient Jack Russell and love Sorolla’s treatment of white and black. Some of the tones Sorolla used to make white fabric and dog in the painting above. […]

The Red Truck, oil on canvasboard, Carol L. Douglas  I believe that creativity rests less on freedom than on structure. I’m not the only person who’s discovered that genius requires discipline: from this Navy SEAL asserting that everything starts with making your bed to Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, the idea permeates current […]

Sketches by C. Leroy Baldridge. Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (May 27, 1889 – June 6, 1977) was an artist, illustrator, and author. During WWI, he traveled through occupied Belgium and France as a war correspondent and illustrator. Sketch by C. Leroy Baldridge. Returning to the United States, he was called up to the border when Mexico’s revolution spilled […]

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1563 From: “Hunter College Art & Art History Department”Date: May 21, 2015 at 2:33:12 PM EDT To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Course Updates: Renaissance Art and Art of Africa Dear all, Unfortunately “Renaissance Art I” has been cancelled.  If you are one of those preregistered for this course, […]

East Main Street, Rochester.(Photo by Douglas Perot) It’s just ten days until my move to Maine, and it’s a pretty ragged time. The Volunteers of America truck will be here tomorrow, my house looks like the aftermath of urban rioting, and I figure I’m about three weeks behind on my to-do list. Everything, in short, […]

By now, I assume you’ve seen the video, above, of the art student who lost her temper at her classmate’s inane and snarky critique. Although she has been characterized as unstable and over-the-top, I feel her pain. Nasty criticism is everywhere, and, sadly, young artists often lead the pack. I remember the first time my […]

Dinghy, 6X8, oil on canvasboard, Carol L. Douglas. A man was fishing in a small boat, not particularly doing much of anything, when one of those bumptious, officious ‘self-made man’ types wandered over to give him some advice.  “Yanno, if you put a little effort into it, you might catch something. Get yourself a sonar […]

Go ahead, look at it. It will be fun. I have needed to update my website for several years. The minion who built my last one grew up and got married. Finding a capable, willing replacement has been tough. But here it is, and I’d appreciate your finding lots of little things for me to fix. […]