Doug Purdon was born in Toronto, Ontario.  He is a full-time painter, teacher and writer.  He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and an elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists.  He currently lives in Toronto with his wife, the writer Rosemary Aubert.
He exhibits his work in galleries in Canada, the US and the UK and his paintings are in many private and corporate collections, including The Toronto Public Library, The City of Toronto, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, Sears Canada, and The Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT, where his painting Tugboat Alley was awarded the Museum Purchase Award in 2005.  A major retrospective of his work was held in October 2007 at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.

Doug believes that artists should continue the tradition of passing on their skills and knowledge to other artists and he does this through his workshops, seminars and writing.  He currently teaches courses at Loyalist Collect, Belleville, Ontario, Southampton School of Art, Southampton, Ontario and the School of Continuing Studies University of Toronto.