Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade (1958-2012) was an American painter of popular pastoral and idyllic subjects. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He is notable for achieving success during his lifetime with the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via the Thomas Kinkade Company. According to Kinkade's company, one in every twenty American homes owned a copy of one of his paintings. Kinkade described himself as a "Painter of Light", a phrase he protected through trademark, but which was earlier used to describe the English artist William Turner (1875-1851). Kinkade said he was placing emphasis on the value of simple pleasures and that his intent was to communicate inspirational, life-affirming messages through his paintings. A self-described "devout Christian" (even giving all four of his children the middle name "Christian"), Kinkade believed he gained his inspiration from his religious beliefs and that his work was intended to contain a larger moral dimension. Many pictures contain specific chapter-and-verse allusions to Bible passages. Kinkade died of "acute intoxication" from alcohol and diazepam at the age of 54.