True, there’s no way of knowing if I’m making it all up. But I assure you it’s true. You can probably find the info on the DUIs and other public episodes online. In any case, if you like his work, that’s just fine. We all need art and inspiration in our little lives. Many of my favorite writers, artists and composers are / were disreputable people I wouldn’t care to meet.
Anyway the firm specialized in helping mega-wealthy clients avoid estate taxes by setting up irrevocable insurance trusts equal to their net worth, which funded legitimate charitable orgs, many of them faith based which gave them big tax deductions and it did help legitimate charities, but the trusts also purchased huge life insurance policies for the donor – the rich person’s and also equal to their net worth, the proceeds of which are not taxable to the beneficiaries – the rich person’s heirs, i.e. no estate taxes but lots and lots of legal fees.
Some of the firm’s clients had names that would be recognizable to some, one was a retired PGA golfer with a son who was also a well know PGA golfer, another was country music star of some fame and a middling sit-com actor and one was the “painter of light”. Others were what I’d call “old money” from old money Baltimore families and the Maryland and DC and N. Virginia horsey set. From my experience, the “old money” folks were polite and respectful, even engaging and down to earth, while what could be called the new moneyed and the celebrity types were a whole different type – all full of themselves.
I sometimes answered the phone and one day got a call from a certain “painter of light” who demanded I put him through to the senior partner. I very politely and professionally explained the senior partner was out of the office but was expected back in about an hour and that I would take a message and have his call returned as soon as possible. With that he went off on me, cursing at me in a really un-hinged manner, told me I was lying and was incompetent and demanded to be connected, etc., and then, yes he did go there - he said, “I’m really important, I’m (said his name) and, “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!!”
Actually at the time I didn’t know who he was.
I tried my best to calm him down and assuring him I’d make sure “senior partner” returned his call. FWIW this was before everyone carried cell phones and while “senior partner” did carry a beeper, he was very clear that we should never page him unless the office was of fire or something equally dire.
So painter guy called me a rhymes with witch and hung up and called back a minute later, getting one of the paralegals who also answered the phone and after she told him the same as I had, he cursed her out similarly. He called back a few more times. I wasn’t sure but he sounded a bit drunk to me, and if not drunk, certainly very nasty and rather unhinged. He called back a few more times before giving up. When senior partner got back to the office and saw all the messages, he rolled his eyes and went upstairs to his office, mumbling something like “like I really need to deal with this A-H today”.
One of the other paralegals told me who he was and why everyone cringed when he called as he was so nasty, verbally abusive and how one time he called one of the paralegals a racial slur (and she was white FWIW). It was so bad the office staff had a nickname for him – “the painter of darkness” and Thomas Kin-racist”.
Shortly after this I began to see his “paintings” for sale everywhere including the Robert Kincaid stores at all the malls and my SIL even bought one, I think from QVC. Personally I find them hideous and schlocky and overly sentimental dreck and not fine art, but understand why some people like them. Some folks even love Bob Ross and his happy little trees. But I was never able to look at a Kincaid without thinking of the nasty and boorish man behind them.
Oh and FWIW, I also learned that most of the paintings being sold, including the one my SIL bought and paid way too much for IMO, her foolishly believing it was fine art and would increase in value, but wasn’t likely even painted by him.
Kinkade's production method has been described as "a semi-industrial process in which low-level apprentices embellish a prefab base provided by Kinkade."[16] Kinkade reportedly designed and painted all of his works, which were then moved into the next stage of the process of mass-producing prints. It is assumed he had a hand in most of the original, conceptual work that he produced. However, he also employed a number of studio assistants to help create multiple prints of his famous oils. Thus while it is believed that Kinkade designed and painted all of his original paintings, the ones collectors were likely to own were printed factory-like and touched up with manual brush strokes by someone other than Kinkade.[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kinkade
And yes, what Blurb2350 said is well documented.