Thomas Paquette is a painter from Western Pennsylvania, whose work I have featured several times before and who I continue to follow, as I am delighted and fascinated by his approach.
Paquette breaks up his compositions in areas of color that are often edged with contrasting or complementary colors. The color areas and edges are in rough patterns that have a fractal appearance, but blend to make a naturalistic whole from a distance.
The result is part naturalistic, part graphic and part textural, with energetic paint marks providing surface qualities that move the eye, even within images that are essentially tranquil.
Many of his oils are fairly large in scale, in contrast to his wonderful gouache paintings that are essentially miniatures, often in the range of three or four inches on a side.
You can find examples of both oil and gouache paintings on his website, as well as printed collections of his work. (I found the book of Gouaches to be particularly a treat, as most are reproduced at their actual size.)
Thomas Paquette’s work will be on display here in Philadelphia in a solo show at the Gross McCleaf Gallery: “Thomas Paquette: Defined by Water“, that runs from September 6th to 28th, 2019. The reception is Friday, September 6th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
