Thomas Creed

Biography

Ensuing 40 years of creating art, I’ve come to the realization that art, painting in particular, is the core of my life. It consumes me, yet inspires me.

Art is arguably the core and foundation of our society and culture. Dating back thousands of years to Petroglyphs, Hieroglyphs, languages and dialects, art developed our humanity, evolved our societies and advanced our civilizations. Pictures allowed us to communicate while symbols ignited a consciousness. Art is a universal language, symbolic for all languages. Throughout history, it has been used as an instrument to inform, communicate, entertain and inspire.

Nature is filled with inspiration. It captures our imagination and stirs our soul. Inner peace abounds in the calm of nature, while rejuvenating the mind, restoring our body and renewing ones spirit. Nature holds the power to take our breath away and offers us purpose. The sound of a mountain stream brings comfort and joy, the screech of a soaring hawk instills freedom, as a breeze from the wind conveys ease and solace. Strength transpires through mountains, trees reveal solidity and might, and skies are unearthly. Nature is to behold with all our senses.

Art and nature posses a symbiotic relationship -an organic and quantum connection. This connection helped create and define our civilization, and is undeniably an essential element of our lives.

I have loved the natural world since I can remember and have always been an artist at heart. My passion is to enlighten, inspire and promote the value of art through the influence of nature and to reveal the philosophical connection of both art and nature.

My “formal” training of art began in high school. I went on to complete two years at Missouri Southern State in 1974 with an art major. While I established a career outside the art field, I was compelled to continue studying art in my spare time, invariably experimenting with different styles and techniques.

In 1986, I committed to an art career by attending the San Francisco Art Institute, which had a tremendous influence on me. My paintings from that era reflect a studious arsenal of artistic ideas manifested from living in San Francisco and attending the Art Institute.

It was not until I moved to Sonoma County in 1993 that I became enlivened by nature again and started painting landscapes full-time. Working from my studio in Windsor as well as painting out doors in Plein Air, I paint primarily in oil, continuing-with great respect-the classical tradition of the Barbizon masters.

My paintings have been referred to as realism, yet that style does not capture the most fundamental aspect of my work—to induce a deep sensory response from the viewer. I challenge the viewer to become part of the landscape. Working from detailed notes and sketches, I translate the essence of each scene’s mood onto canvas—fog nestled atop an oak-studded valley, morning sunlight fingering across an inland marsh, afternoon shadows lengthening through coastal brush—sharing not only the visual rendering of nature, but also the powerful and vital energy it evokes.