Most people in these parts are familiar with Doug, an artist who specializes in woodland Indians. His work is excellent and is popular with the public.
The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma has several of his paintings, either originals or prints. They proudly display them in the lobby of their resort hotel, just across the Missouri/Oklahoma state line on Highway 60. If you get a chance, go have a look.
Doug has attended the sale in Cody for many years and always does well there. Three or four years ago, Russell and I drove to Cody for the show and it was a great trip. We enjoyed being in Cody and it was fun to watch the art auction. We also took the opportunity to visit Yellowstone again since it is nearby.
Doug has come a long way since he started working as a professional artist. It was a major decision when he decided to give up everything and devote his life to art. He knew he risked becoming a "starving artist," but he has become very successful.
The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma has several of his paintings, either originals or prints. They proudly display them in the lobby of their resort hotel, just across the Missouri/Oklahoma state line on Highway 60. If you get a chance, go have a look.
Doug has attended the sale in Cody for many years and always does well there. Three or four years ago, Russell and I drove to Cody for the show and it was a great trip. We enjoyed being in Cody and it was fun to watch the art auction. We also took the opportunity to visit Yellowstone again since it is nearby.
Doug has come a long way since he started working as a professional artist. It was a major decision when he decided to give up everything and devote his life to art. He knew he risked becoming a "starving artist," but he has become very successful.
The work he will enter at the Buffalo Bill sale this year is entitled "NO TRESPASSING," and depicts a real incident about Daniel Boone being relieved of his otter, beaver and deer skins by a group of Shawnee warriors. The Indians took his bales of furs, 900 deer skins, pack horses and gear. They sent Boone packing with a cheap musket and a warning, "Go home and stay there or wasps and yellow jackets will sting you severely."
Of course Boone went home…wouldn't you?
If you have not been to Doug's Log Cabin Gallery and Studio, you owe yourself the pleasure. He is located three (3) miles south of Neosho on Highway 59. He is always there in the afternoon unless he is at a sale and auction. such as the one in Cody. Every Sunday afternoon at around 3 p.m., he hosts a black powder flintlock rife shoot. That shoot has been held every Sunday since 1987. They don't shoot if Christmas falls on Sunday, and for years they celebrated his grandmother's birthday if it fell on Sunday. If it was her birthday, they held the shoot at her house.
The shoot goes on even if Doug is away, unless it's too stormy or icy to get around. All shooters invited. Doug and his precious mother, Rebecca, who is also his greatest fan, will treat you right, whether you are a shooter or "just visiting."
He has some wonderful works of art in his gallery. If you like Indian subjects, this is the place for you.
Just between you and me, I don't know if Doug will have the best selling painting in Cody, but he will hold his own against 40 or 50 other Western artists. Let's hope the hometown boy does well.
(Kay Hively is a historian, author and former editor, reporter and columnist for the Neosho Daily News and Neosho Post.)
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