Back before Christmas I was in Goodwill and saw a large print of an oil painting of a Paris street scene. I liked the painting, as it had the look I was going for in a piece I was doing for my daughter as a Christmas present. It’s nice to have examples of the style you’re aiming at while working on a picture and this one was only $6.00 so I bought it. I had it out as a reference while I worked on Josie’s painting, then I forgot all about it.
I’m finally getting around to switching the rest of our upstairs into part of my studio, as opposed to merely storage space, which it’s been acting as since Josie went away to school. She very graciously allowed me to stuff the corners of the room that was still hers during breaks with large rolls of canvas and my growing collection of frames and easels. Now that she has her own address, I’m tearing out the carpet, stashing the rest of her stuff in the big closet and trying to figure out the best way to place the furniture that is currently crammed into my tiny space. The rooms are under the eaves of the house so the walls are only about 4ft high in most places. I have a few tall bits of furniture to take up the few high walls but the rest can now be spread around the whole upstairs.
And I saw that print that I bought at Goodwill. I didn’t recognize the signature so I Googled it.
Turns out, Richard Girrard is the name under which Thomas Kinkaid painted when he wasn’t pumping out the Christmas card kitsche we all know and…know.
He wasn’t a bad impressionist. Not great but not bad.
Unfortunately, now the margins of every site I visit online are packed with ads for Thomas Kinkaid prints. I am not a fan of the ‘painter of light’.
So I’m googling Richard Schmid, John Singer Sargent, Richard Kochenash and Scott Lloyd Anderson until their work bumps Mr. Kinkaid out of my margins.
Stoopid Google.