bluestonestudios.com
Doug Hoch, Sculptor & Painter
Douglas Hoch is a man of many ideas and few wasted words. An artist by gift and training, he's a sculptor and painter who earned a BFA/Sculpture at Kutztown University in 1975.
His
painting subjects are unlimited, although in the past few years seascapes
have predominated his work.
Doug is an artistic designer and meticulous planner -an engineer and craftsman, gifted and trained in the traditional fine arts. Much the same as Thomas Jefferson did, Hoch combined his love for art and skill at engineering into his life and career. Jefferson's home was a lifework - a living sculpture in which he lived and worked. He designed not only the structures themselves, but the grounds and functional systems on his property. Jefferson laid out his acreage artfully and logically - not unlike the way Doug tackles his own home and work.
Whether
designing a land development project, solving a drainage problem, or
composing a new painting, Doug brings a high functioning right and left
brain to the work and the results are delightful, functional and well-designed.
Initially, a builders development plan can be creative, freeform and
open to change - an artistic work in progress with only a suggestion
of important elements sketched out for first reference.
Evidence that Doug's is an artist's residence immediately surrounds visitors to his home. Skylights, paddle fans and high ceilings crown the Great room - where kitchen, living room and dining room are one space, filled with light and artists' tools. Paintings, still life vignettes, sculpture, wood carvings, stones and photographs share the room with computers, easel, drawing board and reference books. Sunlight spills onto tile and hardwood floors through double glass front doors leading outside to the garden.
Terraced
brick steps overlook a tranquil stone-bound water garden anchored by
a 24-inch tall bronze sculpture, Jack-in-the-Pulpit. The sculpture
conceals a hose that splashes water gently into a natural seashell that
appears to be "floating" amidst the plants in the pond. Birds,
tropical plants, and large trees complete this natural oasis - a hand-built
paradise Doug created stone by stone over the past 6 years.
Doug's
talent blossomed when he was a child; he started oil painting at age
9, and by the time he was 13, his skill as a painter was well-known
in the Allentown area. Doug's parents enrolled him and his brother Barry
in art classes to nurture their talents. To earn his God and Country
badge as a Boy Scout, Doug painted an original oil for the vestibule
of St. John's Lutheran Church in Nazareth. More recently Doug Hoch designed
and painted a religious mural for St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church
in Fleetwood, PA.
Doug carves his originals in different media: wood, clay, paper, stone,
even rigid foam. For the 1976 Bicentennial, he carved a replica of Mount
Rushmore for a patriotic parade float. For years afterward, the sculpture
adorned an outside wall of his office/studio in Southern Pennsylvania.
As a memorial to peace after the September 11 attacks in the USA, Doug created an outdoor display using Mount Rushmore sculpture.
Doug's artist
studio is housed in a separate outbuilding on his property. Doug plans
to expand the studio space eventually in preparation for creating an
historic commemorative sculpture. A larger-than-life statue depicting
settlers from an early Pennsylvania community will be cast from an original
master that Doug will cast in bronze for a Pennsylvania community.
Doug founded Bluestone Animation in 1995; Lee Hansen founded Hansen Communications (in New England) in 1981. Lee relocated from Boston to Pennsylvania in 1999. In May 2001, Bluestone Animation formed a working partnership with Hansen Communications, and Bluestone Studios was born.
Doug and Lee were married in 2002, and the firms merged. Lee and Doug founded the Bluestone Studios artists collaborative in 2003.
