Middle

Douglas' wife Betty became ill in the late 1990's which meant Douglas was at home caring for her until her transfer to a palliative care home in 2000, and her death in 2012. His rediscovery and inspiration of personal art was inspired in great part by his partner, Pat, herself an educator and artist.

Travel to the places he loved in UK and Europe brought new memories, photographs and inspirations from new places, new subject, colour, light, shape and new images. You can see style developing as you walk through the early, middle and later works.

Douglas often used collage and mixed media in his paintings. Many were inspired by photographs, drawings, memories of places, times, shapes, stories and things - often composited in his head before application to paint. Some of his paintings are not of one place or time and often brought the question of, ‘Where exactly is this place?’ the answer was (tongue firmly in cheek) ‘Where would you like it to be?’

Completed works were often reworked over weeks or months - returning to them over and over again until finally putting down the paintbrush and leaving them before varnishing and signing. Douglas’ perfectionism, so helpful in other areas of his life, meant he grappled to declare an image 'finished'. Often a piece that others thought beautiful would be whitewashed over and reused. He was not alone in this trait though - great artists throughout the centuries have done this. Even the ‘Old Masters’!