Thomas Paquette, Plain Above Placid, 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 inches, Gouache on rag board. Courtesy of the artist.
Dialogues in Gouache: with Thomas Paquette
Mar 13, 2015 6:00pm — 7:00pm
International Center for Watercolor
Lecture/ Presentation is free
Thomas Paquette, known for his evocative paintings of nature, will explain how years spent hopping freight trains around the country and hitchhiking to Alaska sharpens the aesthetic sense. He will show how dialogues are set up between his gouache and oil paintings, and how "mistakes" are welcomed in finding fresh territory to explore on the canvas or paper. Thomas Paquette’s presentation on the ways he uses gouache will be followed by his book signing; Gouaches and On Nature's Terms: Paintings by Thomas Paquette commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.
Paquette’s works range from large canvases to tiny gouache paintings on paper that are exhibited and represented in many museum collections. His paintings have been featured in more than fifty solo exhibitions in museums and prominent galleries in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Washington DC, and Maine. He is the recipient of several fellowships and honors, including artist residencies at the American Academy in Rome, at the Aegean Arts and Cultural Exchange (Greece), and at three U.S. National Parks (Acadia, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain). He was awarded a three-year residency-fellowship from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Miami, from 1989-91. At his studios in Maine and Pennsylvania, he completed several large public and corporate commissioned works. His paintings have also been selected to hang in sixteen U.S. embassies on five continents. He has lectured in the U.S. as well as in Greece, Wales and England. Paquette began painting full-time just after earning his Master of Fine Art degree in Painting from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 1988, and now lives at the edge of the Allegheny National Forest in northwest Pennsylvania.