Monthly Archives: May 2015

Doing well by doing good

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 […]

Gonna take a sentimental journey

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, […]

Doggone brilliant

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 genius of routine

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 […]

Field sketches

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 […]

Shell game

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, […]

Redeeming the day

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, […]

If you haven’t got anything nice to say…

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 […]

Enough is enough

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 […]

Check out my new website

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. […]