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Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade (born January 19, 1958 in Sacramento, California) is an American painter most widely known for his mass-produced prints. He is marketed as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light," a trademark owned by Media Arts Group, Inc. more...
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(a public company in which Kinkade is a primary investor). The phrase "painter of light" has also been associated with 19th century artist J. M. W. Turner.
Kinkade is, according to his website, America's most-collected living artist. He has been criticized for the extent to which he has commercialized his art (for example, selling his prints on the QVC home shopping network). Others have complained that his paintings are merely kitsch without substance.
There is a Thomas Kinkade-themed community of homes, "The Village at Hiddenbrooke", outside of Vallejo, California.
Early years
Kinkade grew up in the small town of Placerville, California, graduated from high school in 1976, and attended the University of California, Berkeley and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He married his childhood sweetheart Nanette in 1982.
Some of the people who mentored and taught him long before college were Charles Bell and Glenn Wessels. Wessels encouraged Kinkade to go to the University of California at Berkeley, which Kinkade did. Two years into college Kinkade dropped out.
He spent a summer on a sketching tour with a college friend, well-known illustrator James Gurney, producing a popular instructional book, The Artist's Guide to Sketching. The success of the book landed the two young artists at Ralph Bakshi Studios creating background art for the 1983 animated feature film Fire and Ice. While working on the film, Kinkade began to explore the depiction of light and of imagined worlds. After the film, Kinkade earned his living as a painter, selling his originals in galleries throughout California.
Artistic themes and style
His prints and paintings are distinguished by their glowing highlights and vibrant pastel colors. Rendered in an impressionist style cross-pollinated with American Scene Painting values, his works often portray bucolic, idyllic settings such as gardens, streams, stone cottages, and Main Streets. He has also depicted various Christian themes including the Christian cross and churches.
Kinkade says he is placing emphasis on the value of simple pleasures and that his intent is to communicate inspirational, life-affirming messages through his work. A self-described "devout Christian" (all of his children have the middle name "Christian"), Kinkade has said he gains his inspiration from his religious beliefs and that his work is intended to contain a larger moral dimension. Many pictures contain specific chapter-and-verse allusions to certain Bible passages.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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