Douglas (Pat) George was born in Victoria, BC, Canada in 1943. His formative years were spent in the blue-collar community of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, working in the town pulp mill.

Pat’s art career likely started when he was a teenager, illustrating square dancing newsletters for his father, an active square dance caller in the Pacific Northwest.

In the late 60’s, Pat met and married his life partner, Janette. She encouraged him to pursue a formal education in the arts, and Pat studied at Camosun College and the University of Victoria, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours.

Shortly after graduation, Pat moved to the United Kingdom where he studied lost wax casting and printmaking at Middlesbrough Art College (now the Northern School of Art). Prominent alumni of Middlesbrough include the photographer Graham Smith, and the Canadian painter Ted Harrison. While at Middlesbrough, Pat produced several lost wax aluminium and bronze sculptures and a suite of silkscreen prints. His first professional exhibition was in Middlesbrough in 1973, of small sculptures. Some of his stated inspirations included Francis Bacon and Henry Moore.

His time in the UK was cut short by the death of his mother, and, back in Victoria, Pat was asked to join the newly formed University of Victoria Visual Arts Department. Pat managed the Department’s workshop and was responsible for the acquisition or design of many of the major pieces of equipment used in the department.

By the 1970s, the contemporary art scene in Victoria was well established, pioneered by artists such as Eric Metcalfe, Herbert Siebner, John Di Castri, John Dobereiner, Peter Daglish, and Richard Ciccimarra.

“The local arts community was much closer-knit than the larger centres of Vancouver and Seattle. Personal connections, mentorships and social groups allowed for more experimentation and individualized expressions among Victoria’s artists”

– “Making a Scene: Victoria’s Artists in the 1960s”, University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries.

Pat was a highly skilled printer specializing in water-soluble silkscreen. He also worked in hand lithography, etching, and block printing.

Pat’s work, primarily as a silkscreen printer, has been exhibited in numerous international print biennials and group exhibitions including, but not limited to:  the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation (Newcastle, 1974), 13th International Graphic Biennale (Ljubljana, 1979), 2nd Canadian Print Biennale (Edmonton, 1980), 4th International Graphic Print Biennial (Hermitage, Belgium, 1983), International Print Exhibition (Taipei, 1984), Northwest Printmakers tour (Australia, 1984), National Defense Pacific Rim Exhibition (Japan, 1987 & 1997), 18th Yugoslav Biennale (1989, with Eric Nash, Donald Harvey, Gwen Curry, Geoge Thiessen, and Theresa Bassett-Price), and “Small Images” (Abu Dhabi, 1998).

Robert Amos, arts writer for the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper for 32 years, described Pat as “a master printer” in his role as the University of Victoria’s chief studio technician (April 25, 1987). This was in reference to “Kaleidoscope Suite 87”, a portfolio of works by  Pat Martin Bates, Carole Sabiston and the Canadian poet P. K. Page.

In particular, Robert Amos credits Pat, as a founding member of Ground Zero Printermakers,  with helping to pass on the technique of etching, described as “the particular charm of dense deposits of velvetty black ink on thick handmade papers” (“On Art”, Robert Amos, Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, April 3, 1993)

Outside of the arts, Pat was also a passionate fly fisher, and an advocate for Pacific Salmon conservation and the environment. In 1997, Pat illustrated a limited edition reprint of Canadian writer and conservationist Roderick Haig-Brown’s “Pool and Rapid”. Fish, fishing, rivers, and nature were significant themes in Pat’s prints and sculptures from the 1980s.

Pat passed away peacefully in 2025. His prints and sculptures are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Burnaby Art Gallery, Camosun College, Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s),Edmonton Art Gallery, and the University of Victoria. Also private collections in Canada, Europe, UK, and the United States.

For more information, please see Biography.