John Carroll Doyle, born in Charleston on December 22, 1942, is nationally known for his energetic, light-filled paintings of subjects as diverse as blues musicians, blue marlins and blue hydrangeas. The artist got his start with large paintings in the early eighties with restaurant commissions in downtown Charleston. He has gone on to complete commissions for clubs and restaurants as far afield as Chicago and Alexandria, Virginia, to paint cover illustrations for a wide-range of sport-fishing magazines, and to create a painting featured in the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. His paintings are also collected by a growing, international clientele.

A self-taught artist, Doyle claims as his "teachers" the wooden boats at the Charleston Yacht Basin, shadows on Charleston stucco, and the coastal sunlight that floods this city year-round. The artist recently completed an autobiography entitled John Carroll Doyle: Portrait of a Charleston Artist. Lavishly illustrated with color reproductions of the artist's work and black and white photographs of Charleston from the 1940s and 50s, the book tells not only the story of Doyle's development as an artist, but also the transformation of Charleston from a sleepy town to a bustling tourist destination point.