In 1950, Doris won a County Major art scholarship to study painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and was awarded a University of London Diploma in Fine Art. Her time at the Slade was disappointing, as she found that her own painting style was at odds with the modernist tendencies of the Slade tutors at that time.

After graduation and feeling discouraged by her Slade experiences, she, fortunately, met the Salford artist L.S. Lowry, who encouraged her to go her own way, ignore the critics, and develop her own painting style regardless of the latest London-centric trends in art.

In 1952, in the closing stages of her course, whilst renting a house owned by a professional musician, she met Bruno Schrecker, who was fast gaining recognition as a talented cellist.

They married in 1953, and at this time, Bruno had won a coveted French Government scholarship to study cello with the celebrated cellist Pablo Casals. Doris and Bruno travelled widely across Europe, including initially to Prades in France, for a year, where Pablo Casals was based and where Doris painted the landscape of the region.