"Dioramic Constructs"

Each piece is a unique diorama built on the flat surface of a picture plane, like setting props on a theater stage. Click on the image to read the associated story of the piece.

Lone Tree Arts Center will host Doug's one man show January thru March 2026.

Doug's mixed media art has been nominated for the 2025 Creative and Visual Arts Award in the LUXlife digital magazine, which has over 34,000 subscribers.

20 pieces...

SandHill Descendants

In the area where I live, there is a spring runoff swale with several catch basins. My wife and I frequently walk past the temporary ponds that take form from mountain runoff. We often see Sandhill Cranes standing proudly alert with one eye watching us. Fossils of these birds date back 2.5 million years. The painting imagines the ecosystem of the Sandhill descendants, 1000 generations in the future.
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oil paint on panel and cut out panel, reflective mylar, panel frame, stencil
24" x 48"

livin off the grid

In an abandoned cabin by a stream, a young man lived without modern conveniences—no electricity, plumbing, or connectivity. He embraced simplicity, picking flowers to hang in the kitchen and finding peace in nature's beauty. The self-sufficient and challenging lifestyle was statement to his belief in a deep connection to the environment. A statement that disconnected the algorithms of his past life.
44 x 36 x 6

Church of The Owl and Butterfly

A pagan worship song of the Owl and Butterfly us sung from homemade Xeroxed hymnals. In a mystical church parable of an owl and a butterfly is sung from the hymnal. In the teachings the owl guides souls to the afterlife, while the butterfly, represented transformation and new beginnings. The symbols were intertwined in the light facets of church’s stain glass and in the hearts of the believers
26.5 x 48 x 1.5

Skytiles

Above the foothills the curtain of rain inches toward my porch. The blue sky and bright clouds glow in the distant backdrop. Rain showers of the Colorado front range typically don’t last long. This one would be brief, it at all. Different than the long steady continuum of the misty showers that could last for days in northern Ohio where I grew up. Peddling my bike through puddles, racing home after we called off our wiffle ball game.
46 x 36

Coal fired, circa 1968

Originally constructed in 1957, the Cherokee Generating Station in Denver, Colorado served as a coal-fired, steam-electric generator. During that era, the engineering and construction relied heavily on hand-drawn blueprints. The tall stacks of the plant pushed nitrogen and sulfur dioxide to a higher altitude, away from pedestrians, to avoid respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, brain damage, cancer, and premature death.
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3D mixed media, panel on canvas, oil paint on panel, acrylic on canvas. metal frame, barbed wire.
36 x 24

Habitats for Humanity

NASA aerospace engineers have been diligently exploring and researching the possibility of building a habitat 34 million miles away on a future home, Mars. During my tenure as a Senior Illustrator at Martin Marietta, I had the opportunity to work on graphics and illustrations for NASA’s Mars Observer program. This piece aims to illustrate the present and future habitats for humanity, showcasing our future journey from the blue planet to the red planet.
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3D mixed media, hand carved HDF, oil paint, metal framed painted panels
16 x 20 x 3

Beach Music

Rember the pounding base thunder of waves crashing on the beach. This is the music that travels with our ancient soul. Narrowing my focus into the scene, I watch every drop rise in the air and fall to the foaming sand. My line of sight skips off the arch of the wave and wisps deep into the perspective’s horizon line. The musical chorus plays repeatedly, the soft thunder and wet crash. I stare over my white toes while the music plays on.
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3D mixed media. Fabric, oil paint on panel
21.5 x 29.5

Mist Valley

A mist like curtain hung above the gently moving river water, riding the undulations flowing between the rounded rock bed like it has been doing for forty million years. The opaque haze moved down from the cool pre-winter highland air. Slow and week the flow of 28 cubic feet per second will grow in the spring runoff of the melting snow to over 1200 cubic feet per second, an unbelievable 4184% increase.
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Mixed Media – oil paint, wood veneer, mylar, wood frame

Earth Rings

About 35,000 feet above us, jet contrails are formed by frozen water vapor from jet aircraft engines. Viewed from the ground, a smoky white trail arcs low in the morning sky from eastern horizon to western horizon creating a curved line drawing that traces the Earth's curvature. This perspective zooms me out from my everyday to a position looking down from a spaceship like an astronaut.

The Sunrise Compliment

I sometimes scramble to pull my phone out of my pocket while I’m driving, not to answer a call but to get to my camera. Many of my paintings reference photos that are taken while Im driving. I chase the addictive vision – that moment of light and shadow in a perfect composition.
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3D mixed media, acrylic on canvas & Plexiglass, oil paint on panel, plastic wrap, metal hardware
40 x 30

Flyover State

Geese migration is indeed a fascinating phenomenon that uses the star patterns and the earth’s magnetic field. During the winter, they typically fly south to seek warmer temperatures and open water sources for feeding and resting. As the seasons change, they return north in the spring to breed and poop all over the soccer fields drawn in the grass of my local park.
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Mixed Media – oil paint, carved high density foam, acrylic paint on acrylic panel

Sky bridges

The checkered fields lay still under the sky bridges. The living reflects on the solitude as they watch regular flights that stitch the departures and arrivals connecting foreign and unknown territories. They remain under the translucent bridge, tending their homestead. The general acceptance of quiet destinations bridges the divides of existence.
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Mixed Media – oil paint, carved high density foam, mylar on acrylic panel

Reach for the Sky

Today in art schools’ teachers still teach the lessons of drawing in perspective that was first taught around 600 years ago. The basic principles are the 3 ways to make drawings look three-dimensional. They are called one-point, two-point and three-point perspective. These “vanishing points” are a mechanism to shape objects to look 3 dimensional. Reach for the sky is in one-point perspective. The tree branches follow that one point, vanishing up into space and pulls us with them.
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3D mixed media, oil on canvas, bailing wire
32" x 48"

Apparition

We rock with the ocean’s undulating surface, the glass surface sloshing the tar coated planks of a wooden hull. The days sun has passes below the transition to the night sky. We pray for tomorrow. In the 14th century, ocean sailors have long regarded seagulls as a harbinger of good news. Are we witnessing the hopeful sign of past sailors’ souls or is it stranded fatigue that forms this apparition?
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3D mixed media, oil on canvas, hand carved seagulls
16" x 20"

Premonition

Sitting Bull is widely believed to have had a premonition about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His premonition is interpreted here. The 1876 battle was between the US army led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and an enemy of Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. All 210 soldiers under Custer's direct leadership were killed.
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Mixed Media – pencil, color pencil on mylar

Each piece is a unique diorama built on the flat surface of a picture plane, like setting props on a theater stage. Click on the image to read the associated story of the piece.

Lone Tree Arts Center will host Doug's one man show January thru March 2026. Doug's mixed media art has been nominated for the 2025 Creative and Visual Arts Award in the LUXlife digital magazine, which has over 34,000 subscribers.

20 pieces...

Lone Tree Arts Center will host Doug's one man show January thru March 2026.

Doug's mixed media art has been nominated for the 2025 Creative and Visual Arts Award in the LUXlife digital magazine, which has over 34,000 subscribers.