A native of Georgetown, SC, Doug graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Clemson University before settling on Hilton Head Island in 1960. Doug established a design practice on Hilton Head that grew into a firm employing more than 50 people, and he left his thumbprint on projects ranging from Florida to Virginia.
His professional life aside, Doug’s passion for sketching, drawing and sculpting has been evident throughout his life in the Lowcountry, and he always made time away from his career to practice his talents. Carving fish forms from local red cedar has long held a special interest with Doug and oftentimes people will find him in his studio sketching with sepia ink old churches and other architectural icons of South Carolina. In addition to Lowcountry scenes, Doug’s collections include travel sketches, life drawings, portraits and watercolors.
Doug has published a collection of ten pen and ink drawings of Georgetown Rice Plantations. A set of twenty sketches of landmarks and homes of Bluffton, SC has been printed in sepia and packaged as a group of postcards.
A recent interest in watercolors and his fascination with art by Winslow Homer, Whistler, and Sargent has led to classes in this medium with Ray Loos and Met Stabin. Doug is however, largely self-taught with no formal art training. He developed his technique of sepia chalk drawing by experimentation and by reading notes and text from Holbein and others. He favors artists from the romantic period such as Boucher, Watteau, and Fragonard.
Doug resides along the banks of Huger Cover in the historic district of Bluffton with his wife, Jean and their two dogs – Chewey and Chipper. Doug can be found more often than not in his studio sketching, drawing, carving or designing.
