Thomas Kinkade, born in 1958, grew up in a small quiet town in California named Placerville along the foothills of the Sierra Mountains.By age six, his interest in art was obviously growing at an impressive rate and by age sixteen he was already accomplished enough in oil painting to begin working as an apprentice to California painter Glen Wessels.

His education included attendance at the University of California at Berkley and The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.He then, at age twenty-two, began to work for the motion picture industry.He created over six hundred background pictures for the animated feature, Fire and Ice.He left the motion picture industry in 1983 in pursuit of Luminist landscape painting ventures.

A key feature of Thomas Kinkade’s paintings are their glowing highlights and saturated pastel colors. Rendered in an impressionist style cross-pollinated with American Scene Painting values, his works often portray bucolic, idyllic settings such as gardens, streams, stone cottages, and Main Streets. His hometown of Placerville (where his works are omnipresent) is the setting of many of his street and snow scenes. He has also depicted various Christian themes including the Christian cross and churches.