Welcome!
My name is Deb Dougan Tolle. I am always looking to be part of a new and exciting project, so please feel free to contact me with questions or ideas.
I began painting when I was twenty-three. Living in several different areas of the country has exposed me to a wide array of architecture and topography; I’ve done everything from beach scenes and cityscapes to Southwestern adobe and desert. I work from photos, using several shots of varying perspectives for each scene, allowing myself many choices of how to approach each project. This, among other advantages, allows me to work without having to deal with the challenge of shifts in lighting or weather. I also have a special series called Shadows of the Past which are unique mostly black and white paintings from old photos.
I have had a significant life change that has directly affected my art. I was diagnosed with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. AMD causes a loss of vision in the center of the field of vision. My eyesight is a bit trippy because although I have AMD in both eyes, my loss of vision is primarily in one eye, causing a huge impact on my depth perception. The AMD in general affects my ability to differentiate color, contrast sensitivity (if the movie/tv show is a low lighted scene, I can see very little of it), and interestingly causes issues with facial recognition. I will not recover what I have lost, so the goal is to keep from losing more vision. With regular eye appointments and treatment, I have remained stable since early 2024. I have limitations in what I can do/see in my day to day life and so have had to find ways to work around these issues. I stopped painting for quite some time. So I am working on being loose and free with my efforts, meaning lots of experimenting, nothing sketched out with details in pencil before painting which was always my process. I have watched so many artists’ reels for technique and ideas, and they have been wonderfully helpful. Honestly, painting is even more enjoyable for me this way. This is most definitely a silver lining for this change in my life.
Please enjoy!
