Featured Artist: Paul Thomas
“Paul Thomas is perhaps best described as an artist of intuition. His paintings are composed as they are because of a natural path of creation, rather than some sort of institutionalized formal analysis (such as Albers color theory, for instance).That being said, Thomas’ work should in no way be viewed as naive or set apart from Western notions of abstract art. Quite the contrary, the artist’s style has been informed through years of looking, collecting and ultimately producing art that is uniquely informed through his own personal aesthetic ideals. It is through this active engagement in looking, editing and producing that the artist has been able to develop his mature style. In essence, Thomas’ work is not unlike his personality, it is bright, cheerful and filled with an interior radiance - full of movement and vitality.
Typically beginning on a white gessoed ground, the artist will apply a linear mark that divides the canvas field in a fluid, medium-thinned, pigment which “sets” the compositional direction of the work.Thomas next applies other contrasting colors that often overlap the previously laid down color which creates dimensionality, linear tension and color contrast. Finally, a unified composition emerges - and when done successfully, both the viewer and the artist realize that the image has been rendered with the utmost attention to an economy in mark-making. “Less” is most certainly “more” in Thomas’ work ….and harmony and rhythm are paramount.”
Typically beginning on a white gessoed ground, the artist will apply a linear mark that divides the canvas field in a fluid, medium-thinned, pigment which “sets” the compositional direction of the work.Thomas next applies other contrasting colors that often overlap the previously laid down color which creates dimensionality, linear tension and color contrast. Finally, a unified composition emerges - and when done successfully, both the viewer and the artist realize that the image has been rendered with the utmost attention to an economy in mark-making. “Less” is most certainly “more” in Thomas’ work ….and harmony and rhythm are paramount.”
- MARIANA CARPINISAN, Curator/Art Critic/Art History Professor