James david thomas

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[edit] Biography

James David Thomas was born in the Pacific Northwest where the forests are as high and as deep as the countless mysteries on the Olympic peninsula. As the child of a career military soldier, and Japanese Mother, he moved often and was fortunate to live in numerous wonderful environments where nature was experienced on personal levels at every moment. In rural New Jersey, where in the lush greenness of the Garden State painters such as George Inness (1825-1894) and Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) found their inspiration. In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where living at the alpine level atop the Continental Divide surely must have left an imprint on a child of seven. Thomas Moran (1837-1926), Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) and Frederic Remington (1861-1909) documented the power of that region with bodies of work that entailed decades of focus. But it was in the vast Mojave Desert deep in the basin and range that the young artist came to grips with his vision as he bore witness to the power and intense reductive emptiness of that great space. It is a very eastern interpretation and concept of nature, and an environment where immensity and grandeur are witnessed daily, and human scale is a poignant footnote to the immensity of a billion stars in the sky on countless evenings since the beginning of deep time. New York art writer Jonathon Goodman stated it well; “James David Thomas’s explorations of nature are informed by both Western and Eastern traditions. There is a sense of mystery in his dedication to certain kinds of space, which conceals as much as it reveals”.

Later his professional career afforded him interaction with the likes of Emerson Woelffer (1914-2003), Tom Wudl (b.1948) and Peter Shire (b.1947). Subsequent meetings with Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1923) and Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) cemented his direction as an artist. Thomas works and resides in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Artist's Statement

The following artist statement has been published on several web sites over the years.

In myth, Anteaus was required to touch earth to gain strength. It is a strong metaphor and one that addresses well my choice of the natural world as my primary focus as an Artist. My main interest is our interaction with the natural world and it's cyclical rhythms. The micro and the macro are common themes - grandeur and immensity depicted in various scale. I want the paintings to act as visual Haiku - spare and lean, full of nuance and suggestion: in short, a reflection of the great cycle of life and place, in time, flux, and transition. -James David Thomas