By Emmett Berg
LOS ANGELES, April 7 (Reuters) – Painter Thomas Kinkade,
whose works of luminescent, homespun scenes captivated millions
of Americans even as some critics scoffed, died at his home in
Northern California at age 54, a spokesman said.
Kinkade died alone on Friday at his residence in Los Gatos,
a small town about 45 miles south of San Francisco, from what
appeared to be natural causes, family spokesman David
Satterfield said. No other details were immediately available.
“Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,” his wife,
Nanette, said in a statement. “We are shocked and saddened by
his death.”
Born in Placerville, California, an old gold rush town in
the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and educated at
the University of California, Berkeley, Kinkade built an
unparalleled art empire, his works distributed through about
4,500 art dealers, according to a 2002 interview he gave to the
San Jose Mercury News newspaper.
On television, Kinkade was a pitch man for his art through
the home shopping network QVC.
Kinkade claimed to be America’s most collected living
artist, his prints hanging on the walls of an estimated 10
million Americans. A Christian who often depicted scenes from
the Bible, Kinkade was known to dress as Santa Claus each
Christmas and ride around Los Gatos on a motorcycle to deliver
gifts, according to the Mercury News.
But the aspects of his works that won Kinkade legions of
fans – the small-town scenes and keep-the-home-fires burning
radiance from every lamp – were seen by some critics as tacky,
or worse.
Essayist Joan Didion lambasted Kinkade’s works for their
“insistent coziness,” which she found “sinister, suggestive of a
trap designed to attract Hansel and Gretel. Every window was
lit, to lurid effect, as if the interior of the structure might
be on fire.”
Kinkade, who trademarked the moniker “Painter of Light,”
called himself a “warrior for light” in the Mercury News
interview. “With whatever talent and resources I have, I’m
trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people
feel.”
(Editing By Barbara Goldberg and Philip Barbara)
