Doris Downes

Doris Downes
Doris Downes, The Path to Dinorah, Oil on Linen, 2010.
Born	Doris Raley Downes 1961 (age 55–56)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Botanical Artist, author, Creative Director, Interactive Designer
Employer	Sotheby's, Environmental Governance Institute
Spouse(s)	First husband, Freeborn G. Jewett III, Second husband, Robert Hughes
Children	Freeborn Garrettson Jewett IV, Fielder Douglas Jewett
Parent(s)	Fielder Bradford Downes, Doris Anne Downes (nee Raley) of St. Mary's. She is the niece of artist
Relatives	Uncles, Willard A. Downes, J. Frank Raley
Awards	Silver award, SPD (The Society of Publication Designers), Gold Award, OZZIE, Design Excellence

Doris Downes (born 1961, Doris Raley Downes) is an American botanical artist, painter of natural history. and a writer for the Environmental Governance Institute. She also works in Interactive Design, and was Creative Director at Sotheby's, before becoming a full-time artist in 2003. She is also the literary executor to Robert Hughes.

Downes was raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia and St. Mary's Maryland. She is the daughter of the late Fielder Bradford Downes of Fredericksburg and Doris Anne Downes (née Raley) of St. Mary's. She is the niece of artist Willard A. Downes (1908–2000) and of former Democrat State Senator from Maryland, J. Frank Raley (1926–2012). She became interested in flowers when hiking in woodlands near her home, whilst young; she was taught to draw by her father, who was an artist and encouraged her to see nature from an artistic viewpoint.

She earned a joint degree in arts and sciences from the University of Maryland. Her career started as an art director in New York City in publication design and interactive design including Newsweek, Condé Nast Publications and The Wall Street Journal, She was awarded a Silver award from SPD (The Society of Publication Designers) and a Gold Ozzie Award for Design Excellence. She became Vice President and Creative Director of Sotheby's and Sotheby's Interactive.

She has two children by her first marriage, Freeborn Garrettson Jewett IV and Fielder Douglas Jewett. She met the Australian art critic, Robert Hughes in 1997. and in 1998, he had a near-fatal car crash, was in a coma and then faced prosecution. She flew to Australia to be with him. He said, "Apart from being a talented painter, she saved my life, my emotional stability, such as it is," and, "I really wouldn't have got through it if it hadn't been for Doris. I know that's a sentimental thing to say—it's the sort of thing you're supposed to say—but it is true." In 2001, she married Hughes in the Saló de Cent, the town hall in Barcelona. Hughes died in 2012 at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, NY, while in hospice care. In 2001. Downes has continued to concentrate on painting, specialising in flowers, birds and other motifs related to natural history .