Doug Zeigler
What has Doug Zeigler been up to over the last year?
Doug Zeigler: Painter Turned Boat Builder
Locally renowned painter, and Crossroads Art Center Artist-in-Residence, Doug Zeigler has set course into uncharted territory, rekindling a childhood love of building and sailing boats. Doug says, “from the beginning, this boat project was a step into the unknown.” Now, after several years of hard-but-satisfying work, his beautiful mahogany boat is nearly ready to set sail.
Growing up on a river in Illinois, Doug recalls spending much of his childhood near the water and around boats. “My dad was a good Carpenter, so I learned a lot by watching him work. When I was 10, I built a very simple small boat and through my teens I helped build a few small boats with friends.” While life and his marketing design career took the forefront for many years Doug says, “I knew one day I wanted to build a very traditional, complex sailboat.”
Click Here to Read More about Doug the Artist turned Boat Builder
Doug's Bio
Douglas Orr Zeigler was born in Dixon, Illinois and attended The University of Chicago and The Art Institute of Chicago (BFA). He studied drawing, painting and design with several European émigré faculty who emphasized the traditional disciplines. In this rich environment, he developed an approach to an individual vision which is grounded in representation, but also taps expressive, spontaneous impulses—and yields to immediate responses of color, line, form and texture. Zeigler works from his studio in Manakin Sabot, Virginia.
The artist accepts commissions for a wide variety of artwork: portraits, landscapes and coastal subjects, marine scenes including boat portraits—virtually anything is possible. Through a step-by-step process employing preliminary sketches and color studies, a successful result is assured.
Zeigler states that the visual artist has a responsibility to be faithful to his will to create. In my work, I attempt to go to those places where my vision takes form by means of paint on canvas, or pigmented water on paper. Nature is my starting point, but the sub-conscious guides my response to what I “know” or “see” before me. If others share for a moment what I experience through these challenges then my work is successful."
