Doris Downes

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.

Life and work Downes was raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia

She earned a joint degree in arts and sciences from the University of Maryland. and a Gold Ozzie Award for Design Excellence. She became Vice President and Creative Director of Sotheby's 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. showing watercolours of orchids, hibiscos, irises and tulips, painted from life. She is an artist in the book, American Floral: a Survey, (published by Eaton Fine Art); she has exhibited in the Summer Show at the Royal Academy in London; and is a member of the National Association of Women in the Arts (N.A.W.A.) and the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Downes lives and works in New York and has a farmhouse in Briarcliff Manor, New York.