About Thomas Kinkade
Who is Thomas Kinkade?
Thom Discovers His Talent Early
Thomas Kinkade was born in 1958 and grew up in Placerville, California, (near Sacramento) with his mother, older sister and younger brother. His family knew at a very young age that Thom was a gifted artist. At age 4, he was correcting the perspective of a roadway that his sister had drawn beside a house in a picture. From that age on, his direction was set. By age 13, he was painting at a professional level in oil, much to the amazement of his fine art teachers at the local high school. He sold his first painting at age 11 for $7.50. The woman who bought it remembered thinking at the time, “I’d better hold onto this picture. It will probably be worth something someday.”
Thom Attends Art School
Thom chose Berkeley for his first two years of college. During his years at Berkeley, he spent hours at the Oakland Museum, studying the paintings of Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, and George Inness and other painters within the luminous movement of the 19th century. Thom loved the traditional forms of art, but at Berkeley, the philosophy seemed to be, “Express yourself, FOR yourself” in a very self-absorbing , self-focused way. Thom decided that the purpose of his artistic talent was to enrich the lives of others, and to pursue this goal, he enrolled at the Art Center College of Design located in Pasadena, California.
Thom Writes His First Book
In Berkeley, he met and became fast friends with a fellow artist by the name of James Gurney, who later became the author of the best selling book “Dinotopia”. When Gurney joined Thom at the Art Center, the two decided to take an adventure over the summer aboard boxcars. They would stop by pubs and start out by sketching the bartender. Thom would give the sketch to the barkeep and ask if he could paint the patrons that came in. The bartenders usually said yes and Thom would set-up at the end of the bar with a jar and a sign that read, “Sketches - $2.00”. People enjoyed the sketches so much that Thom and Jim thought it would be a great idea to teach people how to sketch. So they said, “Let’s write a book”. One night they spent hours on the pier above the Hudson River and banged out what became “The Artist’s Guide to Sketching”. The book is now worth about $500.00, if you can find one.
Thom Returns to Placerville
In 1983, Placerville Library commissioned Thom to do a painting of the town to hang in a new library facility. He researched the history of Placerville through oral histories, archival photographs and old fire-insurance maps. He chose a rainy afternoon to give it a nostalgic feeling, and he recruited friends and family to pose for the central figures. He even painted a miniature self-portrait on a poster hanging on the wall below the post office sign. Prints were made and sold from a card table outside the local grocery store for $35.00 apiece as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Library. Five years later they were reselling in local galleries for prices as high as $2,000.00.
Thom Publishes His First Piece
In 1984, Thom traveled to Alaska where he met a bush pilot, Hoppy Harrower. Thom decided that he wanted to paint a suite in the Yukon, so he told the pilot he would give him the original of the first work he painted, worth $4,000.00, if he would fly him around the area for 3 weeks. The painting became known as “Dawson”. It was Thom’s first published painting in 1984.
Thom Paints "Yosemite, Artist's Point...Wins Founder's Award
In 1989, 2700 American artists were invited to compete in a contest in the National Artists for Park Awards Campaign. The top 100 artists would be judged and the run-off would be held in Jacksonhole, Wyoming. Thom painted “Yosemite, Artist’s Point” and made it to the top 100. It was determined that Thom’s painting was good enough to make the semi-finals. The top 18 were then judged and the 9 best went to the finals. The “Founders Award” winner went on a rare collector’s stamp, which would be shown on the cover of a very notable magazine. Needless to say, Thom won, and his work was chosen for that award.
The Painter of Light
Thomas Kinkade is widely regarded as one of the foremost living painters of light. He uses techniques of the late nineteenth century American painters, known as Luminists. His paintings radiate light, inviting viewers to bask in the nostalgia of earlier, less stressful times. Thom’s work emphasizes cozy cottages, country churchyards, cityscapes, and Western landscapes. Each setting is accompanied by that special “Kinkade Glow”, which Thom attributes to “soft edges, a warm palette and an overall sense of light”.
Thomas Kinkade is a gregarious man with a great sense of humor. He is left-handed, about six feet tall and of Scottish/Irish descent. A devout Christian, Kinkade readily acknowledges God’s hand in his life and is well aware of his many blessings including his wife, Nanette and his four daughters, Merritt, Chandler, Winsor, and Everett. Thom pays loving tribute to his family by hiding their name or initials in his paintings. Thom also pays honor to his friends and co-workers by painting in their initials or names in streetcars, license plates or even signposts.
Thom's Paintings Fill Us with Emotion
Thom states, “I try to create paintings that are a window for the imagination. If people look at my work and are reminded of the way things once were or perhaps the way they could be, then I’ve done my job”. Try to visualize yourself in one of Thom’s cottages sitting by the fire on a cold winter night reading a book or listening to the radio. Place yourself in Thom’s lighthouse, "Light of Peace", can you hear the surf pounding on the shore, the roar of the wind, the sea gulls calling to one another? Let your imagination run wild. Get into his paintings. As you look at "Valley of Peace" can you hear the aspens whispering their stories? Can you hear the babbling of the stream? Can you imagine a herd of elk coming down the valley? "San Francisco, California Street", has a magic all its own. The clanging of the trolley cars, the variety of languages spoken, the tourists in awe of the city, lovers walking hand in hand as they stroll down the busy sidewalks, and aromas wafting up to arouse your taste buds. What does this image do to you senses? "Streams of Living Water" celebrates nature, peace and the glory of spring. This image imitates nature at its finest hour. The flowers fill the air with a sweet scent of perfume. The animals are in harmony with each other as they come to the stream for a drink of water. The birds are singing. Listen and you can hear them.
Thomas Kinkade has given back to his community and the nation at large with his blessed gifts of light. Let the Thomas Kinkade Placerville Hometown Gallery share the light with you.