About the Artist
J Douglas is a self taught artist from rural South Carolina. He began painting and drawing at an early age and apprenticed in his family's picture framing studio. Painting remained a hobby until 2012, when he was running a small antique shop in the turn-of-the-century commercial building which now serves as his studio. He displayed his paintings to fill the empty walls of the building and was surprised to find that customers took interest. Encouraged by these early successes, he began to spend more time painting and it quickly became an important part of his life.
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"I met a lot of interesting people while running my shop. People from all walks of life, and a surprising number of artists, intellectuals, poets, and eccentrics. It was largely their encouragement that led me to pursue a creative career."
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Mr. Douglas continued to sell antiques through the 2010s, and worked as a rural mail carrier for four years. By 2015, his painting practice had occupied the entirety of his free time. This led to friendships with several local artists, all with drastically different ideas of art. One friend liked Cy Twombly and the Hudson, NY art scene, another friend liked street art and Juxtapose magazine, another liked Andrew Wyeth and American Impressionism, and one was a student of Robert Liberace and neo-classicism. All in a small rural community with no art gallery in a fifty mile radius. So, the antique shop was rebranded as Douglas Gallery. That venture lasted from 2016 until 2019 after a disastrous fire destroyed half of the small town of Chesterfield, SC, and many neighboring businesses closed. The building has remained a working studio and atelier ever since.
"I played music with several rock bands and one old-time country group in my 20s. Some disbanded from creative conflict, and others just drifted apart. The same interpersonal dynamics are involved when artists collaborate. . I think that's why artists of the past were solitary. Introspection is essential, and that requires solitude. "
Artist's Statement
In lieu of formal academic training, Mr. Douglas’s art education was found in a decade of rigorous practice and experimentation. Taking to the field like the great French Impressionists, he studied the effect of light and the changing seasons by painting en plein air in the fields, swamps, and forests of the Carolinas. His work in the studio is done through digitally arranging photos, and supplemental sketches.
He also worked in traditional woodblock printmaking for several years between 2017 and 2020. He attended art fairs throughout the Carolinas and eventually secured placement in several galleries and businesses throughout the region.
My work is a self reflexive dialogue. I try to approach my imagery impartially, painting what I see without attaching labels to the objects. I paint the rural southern landscape with an understanding of my presence as an observer; as a shadow on the land. When painting outdoors I often intentionally omit the shadow cast by myself and my easel, preferring to imagine myself as part of the landscape and otherwise invisible. In the studio, I try to listen to the subjects and let them tell me what they want to be instead of trying to force them to conform to my expectations.
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This process of exploring the images without conscious attachment allows greater potential for expressing my true self. My lifelong exploration of dream interpretation and guided meditation parallel my painting practice. My best work happens very intuitively, when I actively engage with a subject that fascinates me. Such paintings aren't always marketable as representational imagery, so my goal going forward is to move in a more purely abstract direction
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When I first began painting, I was always worried about conserving materials. I would paint tiny pieces of cardboard in watermedia, working carefully and meticulously in thin layers. A breakthrough came when I was able to buy paint from a department store closeout. Having no reservations meant that I could apply the pait in thick impasto, not worrying about details. That's the technique I've been developing for years now in representational painting, to use gestural mark making to suggest form like a sculptor. My best work often comes through permitting myself to be mischievous and to treat the painting with polite disdain.
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When I actively engage with self expression in my personal projects, I draw on archetypal imagery. I often take inspiration from my memories and dreams, weaving the symbols into other subjects in order to convey a richer emotional meaning. With due appreciation for the ability of vision to transcend material understanding, and the power of color and tone to speak louder than words, I paint to share my understanding of the world. Whatever subject I choose to represent, however abstractly, I hold paramount the effect of the image on the viewer and my role in translating it.
© 2025 J Douglas