About | ledouxart

David G. LeDoux

"People ask me what kind of paintings I make. They mean, "Do you work in water-color, oil, etc?" That has always seemed to me the wrong question. No one cares about Shakespeare's pencil. I usually smile and say, "I make good paintings. A painting should be inventive, striking, challenging, etc., no matter what the media...my work offers itself to the imagination of others and where their imaginative life is determines what they see in it."

David Guyce LeDoux, was born in Church Point, Louisiana, in 1926. He and his family moved to Pineville, Louisiana in 1938. It was in Pineville that David completed high school and enrolled in Louisiana College at the age of 15. After two years of college he joined the U.S. Navy and served two years in Naval Aviation during WWII. He then returned to civilian life and completed his B.A. at Louisiana College, using the G.I. Bill to finance his education. He studied a year at the University of Chattanooga (now University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) before going to graduate school at Louisiana State University (LSU). David earned his M.A. at LSU then stayed on as an instructor for a number of years.

He moved to Tennessee in 1956 and taught drawing and painting at Middle Tennessee State University. In 1962, while at MTSU, he enrolled in a Studio Ph.D. program at Ohio State University. During 1963, David traveled and studied in Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. In 1980, he received a National Endowment for the Hunamities Fellowship at Columbia University. David had numerous exhibits throughout Southern, Southeastern, and Southwestern United States. In 1997, his work was chosen by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to be shown at an invitiation-only exhibit in New York City.

After teaching at MTSU for 38 years, David retired as Professor of Painting in 1994, and was awarded Professor Emeritus status in 2000. In retirement he continued to make paintings in his home studio until 2005 when failing health led to the end of his painting career. However, he continued to write until the time of his death in 2010.