The THOMAS KINKADE Appreciation Thread

When I reflect on what I have to be grateful for this Thanksgiving 2004, high on my list is the inspirational artwork of Thomas Kinkade. His paintings of thatched roof cottages, idyllic landscapes, and windswept seascapes fill me with feelings of peace and joy. He simply makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Please join me in celebration of this great American artist and just plain great American.

has his paint-smeared finger on the pulse of the nation.

well, maybe

and I may need something to cover the holes in the drywall. I will be sure to keep Mr. Kincade's work in mind.

Or so he says.......

Do you ever watch him on QVC??????

Check out his works here.

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.home.web.tk.HomeServlet

I don't want to yak up my Thanksgiving dinner. Kincade's stuff is the worst sort of cheaply sentimental, commercialized crap -- it's right up there with those obnoxious pictures of kittens and puppies and children with big sad eyes that were so fashionable during the '70s. And those godawful "Precious Moments" figurines. It would figure Kincade sells his dreck on QVC.

Just as the master himself.

I would love to see a Thomas Kincade thread locked, but that's so wrong.

and help it out.

edit--

Welcome to DU...and I mean that, sincerely.

I realize the guy is a born-again mindset, etc. but I do like a lot of his paintings, especially the San Francisco series.

I have several of his prints in my house and yeah, I do like them quite a bit. The cottages are very beautiful. I have a lamp of his that has two lights in it and it is a nightlight for the bedroom. Its very cool!

His only claim to fame is how he uses light and dark on canvas, and I prefer the dutch masters (rembrandt, vermeer) when it comes to that.

T. Kincade is wildly popular here, but I consider his milled out by the billions masterpieces fish wrap.

Kincaide's use of light and spiritual images returns me to an era of American history when we understood what was right, when there was only one way to believe in God. Presidents were not questioned. White color workers were trusted. Priests were not questioned. Wealth was worshipped. Everyone understood their place. Understood their place. They understood that life in small, light drenched cottages with thatched roofs was a worthy goal, and worth more than the complicated world of possibilities that we evolved into.

Yes, of course, I'm too young to remember that era, but I know that it existed in someone's childhood, because so many people look back to their childhood years as a simpler time. I trust Kincaid, and am thankful for his creative originality, painting after painting after painting...

All warm and fuzzy, lots of nice (white, middle class) families with their cute kids having Thanksgiving dinner, all that sentimental stuff. But at least Rockwell had talent.

After he quit doing those treacly (but well-crafted) Saturday Evening Post covers, he did quite well commenting on the real America in his work. The painting of the little African-American girl being escorted to school by the National Guard, with smashed tomatoes and racist grafitti adorning the wall behind her... is a subtle masterpiece of America's struggles for equality and dignity.

Also his portrait of legendary atheist/philosopher/anti-nuke activist Bertrand Russell is a keeper... it features multiple facial expressions that capture the spirit of that unique figure.

Check it out... there is more to Rockwell than comfy bourgeois Americana...

which were pretty sappy. But he had talent, and at least he painted his own stuff. Kincade is mass-produced junk that really belongs at those "starving artist" sales you see sometimes at airport Holiday Inns. Only a slight notch above black velvet paintings of Elvis and naked lady matadors.

;-)

They're second on my list of things to be grateful for.

in a sorely dumbed-down culture. How much further down can we go? Not sure, myself, but we are going there.

ZombyWoof lurched into momentary lucidity there, and made a good point about Norman Rockwell. Snobbish disregard of work that falls into the dreaded domain of the 'Illustrator' does a disservice, as well.

Kincade is an insult to the intellectual health of this country. And is analagous to feel good spirituality in their common, sickly sweet,
and superficial content.

If his paintings are for too many people what stands for real art, then this explains why such a simpleton occupies the White House; why Americans like simple people, like Reagan and Bush to occupy the W.H. and why too many are afraid, do not trust intellectuals like Clinton, Gore and Kerry.

Sorry to pour cold water on your enthusiasms. I suppose we all have our individual tastes but Kincaid, really, is no longer a painter but an institute where he gets employees to fill in his drawings by the numbers. Really.

I find his work incredibly boring.

His landlord was cleaning out his room after his death and came across a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created a beautiful and violent fantasy world, primarily embodied in a 15,000 page epic narrative, "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion."

Illustrated by several hundred large watercolors paintings as well as smaller drawings and collages, the Vivian Girls are seven preadolescent sisters, princesses, sometimes depicted as hermaphrodites, who fight against and ultimately prevail over evil deeds prepetrated by sadistic adults. They are aided in their battles by various Christian armies and also by Blengins, dragon-like animals, both fearsome and gentle, that are absolute protectors of children. The illustrations range from calm and pastoral to brutally violent.

http://www.saraayers.com/darger.htm

I think it was in the New Yorker or maybe the Atlantic. Anyway, it's a fascinating story and a fascinating body of work.

...in...



I need a bath in actual water now!

considerably.