Flemingsburg Kentucky,
6" 12", oil on board, July 4th, 2005, $1200
Gentry Tobacco Warehouse, Lexington, Kentucky
$1,200, July 5 1998, Oil on canvas, 10"
x 8"
Painted over four years. Tom's wife spends
a day every summer in Lexington, Kentucky at a professional meeting and
during that time, Tom spent his time researching the tobacco auction business
for a possible painting. His patron had had in their family a large tobacco
warehouse, which they had sold. He wanted to at least have a painting
of it.
Devou Park Clubhouse, 16"
x 12", oil on board, September 9th, 2006
c
Devou Park Clubhouse, 10"
x 8", oil on board, September 9th, 2006
Both painted during Behringer-Crawford's
FreshArt Event, held every year at this time. Tom participated for the
first seven years and then laid off for seven until now. He just had to
come back because it is so much fun. He knows over half of the artists
and the quests at the auction in the evening. He grew up on the edge of
Devou Park at Breckinridge and Montague Rd. He used to hang out at the
museum when he was ten spending everyday up there with Mr. Crawford.
Now Tom has found a way to give
something to the museum but not to give everything. Tom worked from 8AM
to 3:30 on the detailed painting on top and then using the paint of his
palette and the knowledge of painting the detailed painting to produce
a smaller impasto knife painting at bottom. The work has all the sophistication
of the larger work and even sold at auction for a normal auction price
of $350.
Also when Tom was growing up he
would hang out at the clubhouse. He was too small to caddie but none the
less would hang out there. He never learned to play golf until he was
thirty. He and his brother used to play a dirty trick on the first
hole tee. The balls would disappear over the hill after the first drive
and they would go get the ball and then sell it at the clubhouse before
the players would get wise. They eventually got caught.
Now the Harlan Strong Golf Outing
takes place on the second Saturday in September. 140 golfers get out on
the course by 7:30AM shotgun style and play best ball. It's a quick 18
holes rounding up with a steak dinner at noon. There's a waiting list.
It the biggest golf outing at Devou.
Cincinnati,
Ohio
Oil
on canvas, 16" x 12"", Completed July 28th, 1998
Presented to Doctor David by the Department of Family Medicine of the
University of Cincinnati honoring his many years of service to the University.
Mrs. David worked with Tom closely to make this painting. Tom initially
suggested several views of the City and then composed the family from
the many snapshots supplied by Brenda, his wife. The whole process was
kept quite until it was presented to the Doctor at a dinner party held
at the Bankers Club of Cincinnati. The David family was moving to Wisconsin
and that was the reason why the City was foremost in the painting. Tom's
wife, Irene worked for Doctor David and was instrumental in obtaining
the commission. Tom used his typical light and dark manner, keeping the
background light and flooding the foreground in a dark transparent manner
that offered a wonderful illusion to the viewer at a distance. The painting
takes on the manner of a serene landscape offering the viewer enticement
without having to know the scene or the people involved. Tom feels that
this is the only way to create paintings that appeal to all. He only wants
to now involve into an artist who can evoke a gamut of emotions within
one canvas.
Bingham
Home
20"
x 16", Watercolor on paper
It took what
seemed like a two months to complete the watercolor of Melanie's home.
When I first was commissioned for such a large watercolor, 20"x16"
it is about at the limit for a watercolor as far as size goes, I was
a little taken back about the commission. It was a opportunity to get
out my watercolors and use them again after almost a year of disuse.
Not to say that I had not been painting watercolors, I had. For the
better part of the year I had been perfecting a sepia watercolor technique.
It was a almost black white manner using various colors
of acrylic inks to make a classic brown color know as sepia. The end
effect is a classic appearing black white ink painting.
With this technique I did a series of 15 painting of a older person
in a 5"x7" format. Besides that I did two other architectural
paintings. So to leave this sepia manner after a year and return to
color was very rewarding.
