I fell in love with painting as a child while watching my mother paint majestic sailing ships in the laundry room of our home. The smell of linseed oil, resin and turpentine was like incense for a sublime meditation. I always wanted to be a painter, but I never saw it as a way to make a living. I moved through construction, films and television and finally settled into a modest career in voiceover work giving me the time needed to create work as a painter.

I paint to answer the hard questions for me as an artist. I am primarily self taught. My construction experience has had a unique influence on composition, mediums, various strata and their relationship to oils and pastels. I sometimes build my own stretchers, I make my own medium and use unlikely tools like concrete trowels to apply pigment and other mediums. I spend great amounts of time studying the old masters as well as contemporary artists. I think seeing what has been done by the best has helped imbue me with a desire for an original perspective on a very old craft.

I am fortunate to live in Los Angeles, California with my wife a writer and our two dogs.

http://www.davidthomaspaintings.com