Tommy Thompson
Landscape Oil Artist

After working for more than 30 years as an illustrator, in 2003 Tommy Thompson moved on to painting traditional landscapes in oil. He now concentrates on producing pastoral landscapes that include horses. His paintings are impressionistic in style and evoke a sense of peace.

He was interviewed by Area of Design for their March 2008 "In the Spotlight" segment; this interview can be accessed here:  http://areaofdesign.com/inthespotlight/2008/thompson.htm.
Thompson was honored to have his work featured in the May/June 2007 issue of Greater Nashville, House, Home, and Garden magazine. A Washington, DC, interior designer selected two of his paintings, "Morning Fog" and "Flat Creek in Jackson Hole," for the new Board Room of St. Mary's Hospital in Knoxville, TN. A Nashville, TN, interior designer chose Thompson's painting of "A Summer Place in Maine" for display in a 2007 Middle Tennessee Parade Home. Thompson's work is now in collections throughout the United States. He is represented by Willis-Gray Gallery, Decatur, AL; Loblolly Interior Market, Columbia, TN; and The Heirloom Shop, Franklin, TN.  

After moving from a career in graphic illustration, Thompson studied under accomplished painters, Ken Auster, Kenn Backhaus, Roger Dale Brown, John Budicin, Scott Christensen, Kevin Macpherson, Ned Mueller, Michael Shane Neal, Jason Saunders and Dawn Whitelaw. He participated with five other artists in Kevin Macpherson's "En Plein Air Masters Chateau des Arts Mentoring Series" at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies during August 2007. He is a member of the Oil Painters of America, the Portrait Society of America, Landscape Artists International, the Alabama Plein Air Painters, Art for Patronage, and the Chestnut Group, a nonprofit alliance of landscape artists, Franklin, TN. Travels to Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wyoming, as well as Canada and Europe, have afforded the painter a wide array of subject matter for his paintings.

The artist's childhood near Starkville, MS, instilled in him a love of nature. Now living near the banks of the Tennessee River in Florence, Alabama, Thompson receives inspiration for his plein-air landscape paintings from the natural surroundings.


To read an interview with Tommy Thompson by Area of Design, click here: 
http://areaofdesign.com/inthespotlight/2008/thompson.htm



Tommy Thompson`s Collectors Say:

"We are very pleased with the painting we purchased.  We were in the Jackson/Hoback area recently, and we could visualize the painting in our minds as we gazed out over the Hoback Range.  You did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the area."  --Thomas Hoback, Indianapolis, Indiana 

"I spent the better part of an hour this morning enjoying your gallery of paintings. It was exhilarating, and I thank you for a time well spent. Wonderful colors and thick textures you want to touch! I do admire your style." --Katherine Harris, Rome, Italy

"I was first introduced to Tommy Thompson`s work through his paintings of boat houses. I now have five boat house paintings. Since then I have become a fan of his plein air works. He has a unique way of capturing the scene with amazing colors. I expect more wonderful paintings from him in the future."-- Anne Knestrick, Franklin, Tennessee

"Tommy, your site looks great and works well. Your painting of our home in Germantown (Nashville) is one of my favorite things. The fact that you chose it to paint was flattering as we designed the house ourselves and you executed it perfectly. I like our neighborhood because every day here feels like a Sunday afternoon and that is what your painting feels like too. Good Luck in all things. You do beautiful work." -- Dean Dixon, International Photographer, Nashville, Tennessee

"Our painting, `Penobscot Bay,` is lovelier today than it was when I first spotted it hanging on the wall at Palladio. I originally purchased the painting for one particular room; however, because of its versatility and coloring, it fits the decor of almost any room in our home. `Penobscot Bay` certainly is one of our most prized pieces of art!" -- Paulette McMillin of Germantown, Tennessee

"We have just bought our third work from Tommy, a truly gifted painter of outdoor scenes. Our first acquisition was "Reflections of Maine," a deeply evocative rendering of the Maine coast early in the morning. I don't know how he captured the ocean, but it actually seems to have depth. And I can hear the clanging of the boom and the gentle rocking of the little sailboat against its mooring. Our second acquisition is "Grazing at Dawn." The horses grazing, the bale of hay, the river bend in the background with the mist rising off it in the dawn, and that shimmering first light of sun comprise one of the quietest pastoral scenes I've ever seen. The entire scene is enveloped in the atmosphere we associate with the first light of day. "Grazing at Dawn" hangs over our bed and welcomes us each morning as we awake. Our third acquisition is "Cold Ride," a scene of a cowboy riding along a ridge somewhere in Wyoming. Believe me, you are shivering right along with him as the wind howls by. (Tommy confessed that it was his native Tennessee, but he created a Rockies background that is what makes this picture so effective.) "Cold Ride" is now the centerpiece of our den - a perfect rustic complement to our den. Both our bedroom and our den have come alive after 20 years, thanks to Tommy."--John and Mary Bers, Nashville, Tennessee

"Art comes... into the highest part of the mind, with which we can know the presence of God." --Anne Truitt