To purchase prints and originals click on link: doug-kreuger.artistwebsites.com

 

Artist’s Statement

 

Member of Oil Painters of America

 

Places change as time passes: dirt roads become paved highways, family farms become housing developments, and prairies become mall parking lots. Good fortune or otherwise, not all places change at the same pace. As for me, I prefer quiet rural settings where change happens more slowly.

 

I live in the small town of Monee, IL—40 miles south of Chicago. At the present time, Monee and other nearby towns offer an abundance of nostalgic subject matter for my paintings; including: old barns, abandoned farm houses, quaint town centers, and many other tranquil settings.

 

I’m fascinated by aging structures that continue to the present, often becoming local landmarks that contribute to the uniqueness, personality, and economic success of an area. When I visit these places, I think about the people who once lived there. I try to imagine who they were and how they lived.

 

I would characterize my painting style as impressionistic realism, as my backgrounds and surrounding foliage are often created with dabbing and stippling brush strokes, reserving higher detail for architectural features and other supporting elements.

 

When I paint, I strive to capture the textures I see in old weathered boards, peeling paint, rusting metal, and over-grown landscapes. I believe this is important towards conveying the real character of a subject. As a young adult, I remember hearing, “You can tell a lot about a person by the lines on their face.” I guess that’s why I like to paint my landscapes including all their “wrinkles”.

 

Doug Kreuger, Landscape Artist

  

Biography

 

Doug Kreuger was born on July 31, 1954 in Aberdeen, South Dakota and grew up in Hazel Crest, Illinois. From early childhood, Doug demonstrated a strong interest in drawing, painting, and building things. Throughout his school years, Doug excelled in all his art classes, winning numerous awards and recognition for his artistic abilities.

 

Upon graduating from high school, Doug became a student at The American Academy of Art, Chicago, where he studied commercial graphics, life drawing and watercolors.

 

Doug’s first job as a professional artist was with Unigraf, a company that specialized in designing P.O.P (point-of-purchase) displays and display graphics. Doug left that company in 1982 at the age of 28 to start his own graphic design agency, Design Dimensions, Inc. Now in its 29th year, Design Dimensions continues to provide highly creative artwork for commercial advertising under Doug’s art direction. Working as a professional graphic artist, designer and illustrator, Doug has become proficient with computer-generating high quality digital artwork, and is knowledgeable about printing reproduction methods. Many of Doug’s designs, some of them award-winning, appear on consumer product packaging, trade ads, company brochures and websites worldwide.

 

Throughout his professional career, Doug has enjoyed oil painting as a hobby for his own personal pleasure. Favorite subjects have included landmark landscapes, dogs and horses. Although Doug has formal training in the use of watercolors and oils, his preferred media is oil. Doug has honed his painting skills over the years while working on both smooth and textured surfaces. Smooth hardboard panels allow for greater detail, however, Doug prefers the way his brushes and pallet knives interact with the nature of stretched canvas to produce more impressionistic results.

 

Doug’s painting style is perhaps best described as traditional representational. His deliberate approach to painting details allows him to capture the uniqueness found in each of his subjects. Doug’s personal knowledge and experience with architectural building is evident in his keen sense of perspective and his applied drawing ability.

 

As a long-standing member of the Door County Art League, Door County, WI, Doug has exhibited his artwork through several art venues in the Door County area. Additionally, Doug has found success in selling reproduction art prints through a number of small art galleries and gift shops.

 

Doug also sells his artwork on the internet through his website hosted by Fine Art America: doug-kreuger.artistwebsites.com

 

Doug has been married to Debbie (Anderson) since 1974. Together they have raised 3 children, Bryan, Dawn and Amanda. They also have a daughter-in-law, Jolene, and 3 beautiful granddaughters: Lauren Grace, Kathryn Faith and Allison Hope. Doug and Debbie also have a son-in-law, Josiah Keske, married to their daughter, Dawn.

 

Besides family, oil painting and his business, some of Doug’s other interests include travel, woodworking and home remodeling projects. Through his travels, Doug has taken many photographs. He uses his personal photography to generate ideas for his paintings.

 

Doug says, “Finding what I want to paint next has never been a problem for me; finding enough time to paint is always difficult.” Doug says he is most comfortable when he’s painting a subject with which he is personally familiar. For each painting Doug completes, he titles it and writes a short reflection about the subject and what it means to him.

 

© Copyright 2011 by Doug Kreuger

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