Woodstock man killed in fire was artist, ‘amazing brother’

Kristen Studley’s brother loved people and he loved art.

“He was an amazing brother and a great friend,” Studley said Thursday. Her brother, Douglas “Dougie” Webster, died following a fire Tuesday at his Woodstock apartment.

Webster, 54, died at a Woodstock hospital after firefighters rescued him from his apartment during a fire that struck the two-story complex in the 700 block of Saint John’s Road, a Woodstock Fire/Rescue District spokesman said. Two other people also were hospitalized: a woman in critical condition and another person with minor injuries not related to the fire.

The woman has been released, a Northwestern Medicine Woodstock Hospital spokeswoman said.

More than 30 people were also displaced by the fire, which left 12 of the building’s 24 units with significant damage, the fire spokesman said.

Webster lived in the apartment with his live-in caretaker for a year or two, Studley said. She last saw her brother a week ago after she drove from her St. Louis home to visit him and their widowed father.

Webster was known in McHenry County art circles. Three of his pieces – two ceramic masks and an acrylic on canvass – are part of the permanent collection at McHenry County College, where he took art classes, gallery curator Trevor Power said.

Webster’s work was included in a individual student exhibit for advanced painting in 2007; featured in Voices 2011, the school’s literary journal; and shown at other galleries in the area, according to Northwest Herald archives.

Webster “was an amazing dude,” retired MCC painting professor Mark Arctander said. In the 20 years he taught at MCC, Webster was in his classes for at least 10 of them, he said.

Her brother, who recently began using a wheelchair, made friends through his art, Studley said. Many friends wrote on his Facebook wall following his death, sharing their loss and grief.

“He did not balk at any thought or ideas. Some are so afraid of making a mark on their canvass or adding a nose at this point. His eyes, the nose, were not where they were supposed to be. He was intuitive. It was just what he wanted it to be.”

—  Mark Arctander, McHenry County College painting professor

One shared that once he had a canvass but didn’t know how to start, so he asked Webster for advice. “He said, ‘Just put some paint on it,’” Studley recounted. “He told great, silly jokes and brought out smiles to everyone.”

Matt Irie, the painting and drawing professor at MCC, said he never had Webster in one of his classes, but still knew him.

“When Dougie was around, he would stop and say something funny in the hallway,” Irie said.

Irie and Arctander said they own some of Webster’s work.

“The masks – they are wacky, quirky things. He made these masks that are just fantastic, All of the masks and the faces he did ... they all kind of looked like him in a way,” Irie said.

What makes Webster’s art special was his intuitiveness, Arctander said.

“He did not balk at any thought or ideas,” he said. “Some are so afraid of making a mark on their canvass or adding a nose at this point. His eyes, the nose, were not where they were supposed to be. He was intuitive. It was just what he wanted it to be.”

Preliminary discussions began Wednesday about hosting a retrospective of Webster’s work in early 2025 in one of the art spaces inside MCC, Irie said.

Webster shared his art with everyone, Studley said.

“He would paint someone a painting – it was a joy to him to share his art – and he wanted to see where you hung it,” she said.

He also kept in close contact with the people he loved, calling them every day.

“The phone call didn’t last more than 30 seconds, but he would always call. I am going to miss his calls,” Studley said, adding that on Thursday, she was listening to some of the voicemails he’d left.

“He will be missed. He left a big impression on people,” Studley said.