“Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light”, is so closely related to his persona he trademarked that phrase. He likes to be called, “Americas most-collected living artist”, which is probably true. His products are licensed and sold through Media Arts who claim one in 20 homes in the U.S. own some representation of Kinkade’s artistry.
Thomas Kinkade’s style falls in the impressionism scenery painting territory. His images appear in saturated pastel colors and glowing highlights. He is considered a stipple paintings master and best known for his oil paintings in luminous inspirational themes. Stippling is a method of drawing or painting using dots or short strokes. Thomas has an amazing ability to recreate lighting effects in his paintings that appear to glow from within. This is called the “Kinkade glow”.
Thomas has created over 37 Christmas prints that beautifully display various Christmas landscapes, in addition to thousands of other paintings. In addition, he produces ceramic replicas of many of his paintings which may light up or hold flowers. His subjects include cottages, gardens, lighthouses, seascapes, nature, cabin, hearth and home, cityscapes and inspirational. Thomas is known for inserting family member’s initials, hearts, or other traces in his paintings. His paintings represent the past as it should have been, not what it was. Mr. Kinkade rarely includes people in his paintings as he desires to capture memories to trigger an emotional response to an experience.
Besides his paintings, his designs can be found on watches, blankets and pillows, mugs, ornaments, mousepads, music boxes, tote bags, coasters, photo frames, umbrellas, ties, lighted figurines, and many other items. In addition to being a popular artist, he has written over 140 books, is a best-selling author and respected speaker.
To uncover more information on other Christmas artists, read our article “Nothing Goes Better With Coke Than Santa”.