How being an agoraphobic led me to become a surreal artist
Cows on carousels, camping catastrophes, and creating countryside chaos amidst copious cuppas is how Yorkshire steampunk artist, The Dougé aka Doug Smelt, is all over North and East Yorkshire this summer with exhibitions, live painting events and talks from Filey to Cottingham, Pickering and on the beach at Hunmanby Gap.
“I love setting my easel up anywhere, people come and chat about what I’m painting, often seeing the humour and having a laugh about it,” says Doug, an east Hull born lad who turned his back on another life which broke him, quite literally, in body, soul, mind and money in the 90s, leading to his salvation through art.
“Art rescued me. It has always been the thing I go to, a form of meditation,” he says.
"Over the years I have developed as an artist and found myself putting on community events, creating platforms for young artists, encouraging the arts.
“My main influence was Salvador Dali, right from my youth and a lot of my work in my early days took on his style.
The Dougé was born following a career in property and building that saw him heading up nine companies by his early 30s, causing burnout and a creative desert that saw the once upwardly mobile Doug suffer a breakdown and bankruptcy.
This led to an onset of agoraphobia for several years before reinventing himself, discovering his artist’s mojo.
“While I was stuck in the house I painted, utilising a lot of memories of the Yorkshire countryside and coastline.
"That’s where it all began, and when I came out from agoraphobia, I knew that I didn’t want to go back to what I’d been doing before.
Doug wasn’t The Dougé at that time. He knew he needed to be back earning a living and found a niche that ticked his boxes, providing income and also being creative.
“When I first started I didn’t have the skill to make money as an easel painter, but what I did have was a vast knowledge of property and paint materials that related to properties.
"I finished up getting work painting murals in pubs and clubs. A glorified painter and decorator.”
Doug is modest about his commercial work, which also saw him pick up Civic Society awards, but he’s now exclusively an easel artist with his surreal steampunk works proving popular at exhibitions and he’s recently been in demand for commissioned dog portraits.
“I had to come out of the murals work when MRI scans showed I had two damaged vertebrae and spinal stenosis,” says Doug. “I already suffer with arthritis in my hands and feet, and at times I lose my hearing and have been profoundly deaf. My health’s got a bit better in the last year.
“I’ve painted landscapes, portraits, now dogs. I like the challenge of new things while always enjoying my own Salvadore Dali passion through my love of Yorkshire and engaging with that typical white rose humour.
“I was painting on the beach at Hunmanby Gap and somebody came up and said ‘you’re not painting what’s there’. I said that’s not the point. What a wonderful place to come to work, much better than being sat in a studio somewhere. You’ve got all this around you and at the end of day when you’re finished you can jump in the sea and have a swim. It’s a no-brainer.
Doug loves the coast and one of his paintings features a weird contraption on the beach.
“I drink at least 20 cups of tea a day. When my partner and I go down to the beach we bring everything – my easel, paints, brushes, windbreaks, seats and tea.
"We always had this thing about wouldn’t it be nice to have tea on the beach that is already made, and the painting shows this massive tea urn, tea maker.
“I also sometimes incorporate the Yorkshire Tea logo in my works. One of the things I learned when painting landscapes, during studying at art college, was that Turner and Constable would often put a dash of red in a green landscape, making the green more vibrant.
The cows on carousels imagery is one of Doug’s most popular works, along with another more recent painting.
“The cows are getting dried off on a rotary washing line, another is being hoisted on a crane. The setting is Howsham Bridge near Castle Howard.
"We had been out for a drive one day and there were cows either side of it, walking down this walkway and into the river, under the arch of bridge, and crossed river and into next field. I thought, they’re having a wash, then I’m thinking about how they get dry. What about an airer clothes dryer.
“The pop-up campsite painting came up when a friend relayed his experience of an absolute disaster he’d had going camping near Whitby. Tent poles were missing, rain, a damaged laptop. I’m falling around laughing at the end of the phone and I see it all. He said I’ll commission you to paint it.
One of Doug’s latest works is a portrait, Vitamin Sea.
“She’s a Filey Mermaid. I joined the Filey Mermaids swimming group. I came across them on Facebook and when I stay at Primrose Valley I join them. These girls are serious hardcore swimmers.
The Dougé is on tour this summer and will once again be painting and enjoying talking with those that take an interest.
“I’m loving life. I’ve been the featured artist at Ga11ery Eleven in Filey for May and resident artist at The Cromwell & Highwayman’s Gallery at The Bay Horse Inn in Pickering where I’ll have a rotating exhibition of new work through summer, and I’ll be painting in the beer garden. I will also be at Caffè Stop on the roundabout that leads to Whitby.
You can also see The Dougé’s work for a week from July 22 at Café Nora in Cottingham, including an evening talk on July 26.