Carol L. Douglas lives and works in Rockport, ME. A native of Buffalo, NY, she studied painting and sculpture with her father from a very young age. She studied painting at the Art Students League in New York with Cornelia Foss, Joseph Peller, Nicki Orbach and others. In 1997, she quit working as a graphic designer to take up painting full time. Two bouts with cancer were transformative experiences. In 2016, she traveled across the continent from Anchorage, AK to St. John, Newfoundland, sleeping and working out of an old Suzuki SUV. Her goal was to paint the vast sweep of the northern wilderness. Her 46 finished paintings can be seen here. I find great peace in the natural world, she said, and I want to share that with others. Douglas' paintings are never about mimicking the styles of great artists before her. Her paintings are a response to her environment, which translates into her mark making. They are meant to be a dialogue between the viewer and the work. She is, however, keenly aware of her place in the continuum of art. I use direct painting and abstraction because these are the tools of our time, she said. As with other New York artists who came to Maine, the draw isn't primarily the art community, but the natural world itself: the sky, the dark pines, the ceaseless rise and fall of the tide, and the granite outcroppings. For many years, she has taught an annual workshop in Acadia National Park, Sea & Sky. She will be teaching a four-day workshop on a heritage schooner this June, Age of Sail. She taught in Taos, NM, and elsewhere in the US.Douglas writes a popular painting blog, Watch Me Paint, which has been ranked among the top 75 art blogs worldwide.