(from Winter 2008 Issue of Horses in Art, Published 2008, Jamul, California; www.horsesinart.com)
Peaceful Images in Oil
Staff Writer
Peaceful Images in Oil
Staff Writer
Photo by Anthony Scarlati (http://www.scarlati.net/)
"Your paintings make me feel so peaceful," is a remark that painter Tommy Thompson hears from many viewers of his artwork. Thompson feels blessed to do what he enjoys the most--painting in oil. This pleasure follows more than 30 years of work as an architectural and commercial illustrator.
Thompson now concentrates on painting pastoral landscapes that include horses. His paintings are impressionistic in style and evoke a sense of peace.
"I grew up riding a horse named 'Liz,' on my family's farm, and this love of horses is obvious in many of my oil paintings today," the painter says. "Traveling through the countryside, my minivan often screeches to a halt at the sight of beautiful horses. Out from the van come my paints, easel, and digital camera as I set about capturing the pastoral scene on canvas. All of my paintings today are done using a limited palette of cadmium red light, cadmium yellow light, ultramarine blue, transparent oxide red, alizarin crimson, and titanium white. Using a palette knife and brushes, I paint wet-into-wet."
"I've always been the kind who wanted to see what was around the next curve, over the next hill, or at the end of an interesting lane," Thompson says. "Now I want to capture on canvas what I find on my journeys. I ride the roads less traveled looking for the play of light and shadows on tranquil pastoral landscapes and beautiful horses."
One of Thompson's favorite places to paint is Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in the Tetons. His painting, "Horses of the Tetons," was inspired when the painter climbed High School Butte in Jackson every day while visiting there. After photographing some beautiful horses in the area, Thompson combined a digital landscape photo and the horse photo to create an image from which to paint this studio piece.
Thompson now concentrates on painting pastoral landscapes that include horses. His paintings are impressionistic in style and evoke a sense of peace.
"I grew up riding a horse named 'Liz,' on my family's farm, and this love of horses is obvious in many of my oil paintings today," the painter says. "Traveling through the countryside, my minivan often screeches to a halt at the sight of beautiful horses. Out from the van come my paints, easel, and digital camera as I set about capturing the pastoral scene on canvas. All of my paintings today are done using a limited palette of cadmium red light, cadmium yellow light, ultramarine blue, transparent oxide red, alizarin crimson, and titanium white. Using a palette knife and brushes, I paint wet-into-wet."
"I've always been the kind who wanted to see what was around the next curve, over the next hill, or at the end of an interesting lane," Thompson says. "Now I want to capture on canvas what I find on my journeys. I ride the roads less traveled looking for the play of light and shadows on tranquil pastoral landscapes and beautiful horses."
One of Thompson's favorite places to paint is Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in the Tetons. His painting, "Horses of the Tetons," was inspired when the painter climbed High School Butte in Jackson every day while visiting there. After photographing some beautiful horses in the area, Thompson combined a digital landscape photo and the horse photo to create an image from which to paint this studio piece.
Another of Thompson's favorite horse paintings is "Cold Ride," in which he captured the likeness of the Dutch horse trainer, Arnold Warmels of Leiper's Fork, Tennessee (fryslanvalley.com). Warmels had this to say about the painting, "It is amazing how Tommy caught the feel of 'Cold Ride' and the crisp winter calmness of a lonesome get-together with a horse. I am honored that both my horse Rambler and myself could inspire Tommy for this beautiful painting."
One of Thompson's collectors, who purchased his painting, "Grazing at Dawn," has a special appreciation of the artist's talent and skills, as expressed in his testimonial: "Our second acquisition, 'Grazing at Dawn,' depicting a horse grazing, a bale of hay, a river bend in the background with the mist rising off it in the dawn, and those shimmering first rays of sunlight comprise one of the quietest pastoral scenes I've ever seen. 'Grazing at Dawn' hangs over our bed and welcomes us each morning as we awake."Thompson is a member of the Oil Painters of America, Portrait Society of America, Alabama Plein Air Painters, and the Chestnut Group, a nonprofit alliance of landscape artists of Nashville, Tennessee. The artist's childhood near Starkville, Mississippi, instilled in him a love of nature. Now living near the Tennessee River in Florence, Alabama, Thompson receives inspiration for his paintings from the natural surroundings. To view more of Tommy Thompson's work and to commission a painting, check out http://www.tommythompsonart.com/.
