Posted on 04/10/2012 12:49:24 PM PDT by robowombat
Autopsy for painter Thomas Kinkade Monday, April 09, 2012 By Martin Barillas
The famed ‘painter of light’ Thomas Kinkade once said that his fervent wish was to make people happy. And judging by the numbers of his painters and copies circulating around the world, he indeed made many thousands of people happy with his work. Kinkade passed away on April 6 in Los Gatos, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay area. He claimed to be the nation's most collected living artist, earning him a reported $100 million a year in sales. It is reported that his work is found in 10 million homes in the United States alone. Before his Media Arts Group went private, the company took in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers across the U.S. The cost of his paintings range from hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000. He often appeared at Christian churches across the country,.
An autopsy is expected on April 9 by the Santa Clara County coroner. No cause of death has been announced for the 54-year-old Kinkade who had been described as a devout Christian. According to business associates and interviews, the successful painted had dealt with his alcohol abuse, and a 2010 mug shot following an arrest went viral after a drunken driving charge. He pleaded no contest to that charge. He had also been separated for more than a year from his wife, Nanette, with who he had four daughters, all of whom had ‘Christian’ as a middle name. "Thom provided a wonderful life for his family," his wife, Nanette Kinkade, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death."
Besides his wife, and their daughters Merritt, Chandler, Winsor and Everett, Kinkade is survived by a brother, Pat, who worked for the painter’s company. Thomas Kinkade Co. officials sent a message to distributors on April 6 that the business will continue as usual. A memorial on his website featured Mathew 5:4: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." He was mourned by family and friend at Los Gatos on April 6.
Except for looter guy, this is the painting I think of when people mention his work.
Looter guy is more appropriate than a streetlight on the other side of the creek.
Nice front porch too, you get to go from the house to the creek or that miniscule path, that must suck.
As for being ‘collectable’ I’m sure they are, they just aren’t valuable.
I marvel at the many people who criticize his art. He made millions of people happy with decent paintings of comforting, civilized, peaceful scenes - what a crime, eh? That’s why so many can now sneer at him - the very people who, if forced to live by selling their own paintings, would be dead from starvation in a month.
RIP, Thomas - and congratualtions for escaping this snarling world.
I don’t own any of his art, but it doesn’t offend me. In fact I prefer it over most of the modern “art” that we rubes aren’t expected to understand, like splatter drunk Jackson Pollock’s work which goes for millions.
***he actually used surrogates and assembly line techniques.***
There was a movie back in the 1980s in which Sally Field was an “artist” in one of these factories.
Can’t find it on IMDB.
Let me guess....Saccharin overdose.
There's a difference between a “painter/illustrator” and an “artist.”
Now Norman Rockwell referred to himself as an “illustrator”. However, when you stand before one of his canvases, you know he was an ARTIST. (And if you were ever fortunate enough to see one of fine art paintings, none of which I have ever seen in print, you realize he could hang along side the Old Masters in complete equality.
Kincade was a huckster. His colors jar the eye.
I always end up looking at his paintings and thinking that the people who built their house so close to that creek are idiots, and that they’re gonna get flooded out when spring comes and melts the snow on that mountain in the background.
Actually, with the looter guy in it, it becomes a work of art, I think. Satirical art. Two iconic images combined, the impossibly utopian landscape, and the dystopian looter guy, who originally was also in water.
So do I. I can’t help but find what’s WRONG with all his paintings. Hurts my eyes.
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