A native of Long Island, New York, Doug studied art at Buffalo State College and later with various local artists, including Stan Brodsky, Joseph Reboli (1945-2004), Art Cumings and Christian White. He then ventured briefly into academics and worked as a design instructor at Briarcliffe College. He currently teaches workshops in oil painting and plein air painting on Long Island.

In Doug's au plein air paintings color is the main character. It leads the eye into understanding the subject matter. Color represents weather, sounds, and smells in these works. It invites us to meet people, to enter their houses, sit in their cars, watch their boats, and share their beaches. The coastal scenes rendered in Doug's paintings go beyond a pretty image, they are an abstraction of a moment in the life of a local town; similar to what one sees out of the car window when traveling to the far end of Long Island, through the heart of the countless charming towns in between.

Emotions also have a way of being represented in his work. At times a sense of longing is present within the subject of the paintings. Often there is humor, as in his recent mixed media pieces, which incorporate small painted clay characters. These figures resemble the types of sketches he made during a period when he sold cartoons to a variety of newspapers and magazines including The New Yorker.