Carrie Douglas Dudley Ewen Biography

Carrie Douglas Dudley Ewen was born in Flemingburg, Kentucky in 1894 her parents were Charles Lee Dudley and Lula Keener Dudley. Her father, a civil war veteran, operated a car service and her mother liked to indulge her artistic inclinations by painting   Doug started working creatively when she was a child; she would create paper dolls, something that she kept doing later in her life. Her mother served as an early influence on her and likely encouraged her artistic inclinations.

She moved to Chicago where she attended the esteemed Art Institute. After graduation she decided to stay in Chicago and make a living doing commercial work. Her work in this field is diverse. She did work in the commercial sphere designing illustrations for children's tales and for recipe books; in addition to this she produced greeting cards for Henri Fayette.

She traveled overcrowd with her husband Jack Ewen, who worked for Frigidaire, to places such as London, Paris, and they stayed at a house near Milan for his business trips; Lake Como. These excursions served to broaden her viewpoint of thy world. Throughout this time she continued working on her commercial endeavors, such, as designing greeting cards, posters, and illustrations for children's books. She also gained some inspiration from her stays abroad. There were some things that she saw that influenced the direction-of her work, such as the Art Deco style which was popular in the early twentieth century.

Most of her portrait subjects concerned those who she was close to such as the depiction of her father C.L. Dudley and the painting of her young niece Lu Ann Bear; these paintings were done for her enjoyment, she never considered selling them to the sitters. Many people offered to buy her paintings, but she always   intended to keep them, She moved back to Kentucky in 1963 in order to be with her ailing brother, Bruce, who was a resident of Louisville. She occupied an apartment in the York Towers. Creation extended even to the more mundane facets of life. For instance, in her apartment she had the carpet removed, the floor painted black, the walls were a shade of yellow and the accents of the rooms were turquoise.  Doug lived in Louisville until her death in 1982. She is buried in her hometown of Flemingsburg, Kentucky.

Her work has been, featured in exhibitions at other institutions. Artist's Studio was featured in Kentucky Women Artists: 1850-1970 at the Kentucky Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. Her Self-Portrait was displayed in 1937 in an exhibition at the Corcoran Museum of Art.