John Carroll Doyle (1942-2014) is a Charleston native who is known nationally for his energetic, light-filled paintings with a variety of subjects. His body of work includes everything from blues musicians to blue marlins. Self-taught, Doyle began his career by painting scenes of sports fishing, which quickly garnered him attention. Popular sports fishing magazines in the late 1970's and early 1980's frequently displayed Doyle's works on their covers, reaching a national audience. Doyle continued to make a name for himself throughout the 1980's with his now famous and large scale commissioned paintings that can be seen on the walls of many of downtown Charleston's beloved restaurants, as well as clubs and restaurants as far afield as Chicago, Illinois and Alexandria, Virginia. With a career that spanned four decades, Doyle is considered one of the great American Impressionists. With Charleston as his muse, he painted with a passion that is remembered. He once claimed that his greatest "teachers" were the wooden boats at the Charleston Yacht Basin, the lavender shadows on Charleston stucco, and the coastal sunlight that floods the lowcountry year-round. In 1997, Doyle completed an autobiography entitled John Carroll Doyle: Portrait of a Charleston Artist. Lavishly illustrated with color reproductions of the artist's work and vintage black and white photographs of Charleston from the 1940's and 50's. The book tells the story of Doyle's development as an artist and the transformation of Charleston from a sleepy town to a bustling tourist destination.