|
Erin Thomas is an artist originally from Western Massachusetts and has been settled into a quiet life in Southern Maine for over 20 years. She has shown her work around the Northeast for over 30 years, most notably at the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown Massachusetts. Although Erin is most well known for her whimsical and odd acrylic paintings, she has also worked on several unique creative projects around the Seacoast area, including founding the notorious BAA and the Rural Avant-Garde group in Berwick, Maine, and also completing a five year long firefighter image collection project as a first response photographer, with one of the photographs receiving an "Editor's Choice" award from Smithsonian. Many of Erin's original paintings and commissions are held in private collections across the globe.
Erin is currently creating new work from her home studio in Southern Maine where she lives with her family of people and animals. |
Excerpts from:
Ask Me About My Art / 2020
Where does your inspiration come from?
"Everywhere! That's a bit of a tough question because inspiration is fluid and constantly evolving and it changes minute to minute, hour by hour. I could be passionate about circles one day and trip over a rock and obsess about the color of that particular rock for a decade. It's a constant surprise for me, that's what makes life, and art... interesting and beautiful. I think as an artist, one must become disciplined to focus the inspiration and funnel it into things that also contain passion, for me, I'm passionate about nature, land and the community that surrounds me...but also ethics, psychology and human relationships and also humor... and so much of my successful work comes from those places."
What is your creative process?
"Well, that might be an entire separate book! I guess the simple answer is that I dump the things that clutter my brain into art so I can make room to upload all the new things....haha...but seriously, a creative process can be agonizing at times, it's a "thing" for me to start challenging how I have successfully painted in the past, and literally, forget how to paint...so my creative process goes flying and then I have to re-enter reality and remember how to execute the idea with the skill I have stored somewhere in my brain hard drive, sometimes, I just forget the name of the folder I put it in and end up sending out a search party."
What medium do you primarily work in?
"Depends on the subject, the colors I am drawn to that day, the subject I'm looking at and whatever it is that is inspiring me at that moment...I use whatever tool necessary to best convey the story, image, or message. I do seem to have a comfort level with acrylic on canvas, written word or digital photography, I frequently lean on and return to those tools after trying a few other things."
Ask Me About My Art / 2020
Where does your inspiration come from?
"Everywhere! That's a bit of a tough question because inspiration is fluid and constantly evolving and it changes minute to minute, hour by hour. I could be passionate about circles one day and trip over a rock and obsess about the color of that particular rock for a decade. It's a constant surprise for me, that's what makes life, and art... interesting and beautiful. I think as an artist, one must become disciplined to focus the inspiration and funnel it into things that also contain passion, for me, I'm passionate about nature, land and the community that surrounds me...but also ethics, psychology and human relationships and also humor... and so much of my successful work comes from those places."
What is your creative process?
"Well, that might be an entire separate book! I guess the simple answer is that I dump the things that clutter my brain into art so I can make room to upload all the new things....haha...but seriously, a creative process can be agonizing at times, it's a "thing" for me to start challenging how I have successfully painted in the past, and literally, forget how to paint...so my creative process goes flying and then I have to re-enter reality and remember how to execute the idea with the skill I have stored somewhere in my brain hard drive, sometimes, I just forget the name of the folder I put it in and end up sending out a search party."
What medium do you primarily work in?
"Depends on the subject, the colors I am drawn to that day, the subject I'm looking at and whatever it is that is inspiring me at that moment...I use whatever tool necessary to best convey the story, image, or message. I do seem to have a comfort level with acrylic on canvas, written word or digital photography, I frequently lean on and return to those tools after trying a few other things."
Highlights:
2023 - SUMMER FIREHOUSE RESIDENCY 2023 - Exeter Town Hall - Exeter NH - RED - group exhibition 2020 - 2022 - erinthomas.art - online gallery exhibitions 2018 - Foundation Art Space / AIA - group exhibitions 2017 - Barriers - Street Art installation Bridge St. Berwick, ME 2015 - 2017 Founded MODspoke & The Rural Avant-Garde - Art Group 2014 - 2018 First Response Photographer - 1st Response News - Northeast 2014 - Blackbird Studio - Group Exhibitionp 2012 - 2014 Berwick Art Association - Founder / Director / Artist 2011 - 100 Market Street Gallery - Portsmouth NH - Solo Exhibition 2011 - Kiss My Disorder - Mental Health Awareness campaign 2010 - Bowersock Gallery - Provincetown MA Featured Artist "Wild Things" 2009 - TeaTotallers - Somersworth NH- Inaugural artist / solo 2006 - Nikon Inc. PMA live painting Las Vegas NV 2005-2010 Bowersock Gallery - Provincetown MA - Stable Artist 2005 - Sights Unseen Gallery - Dover NH- Stable Artist 2002 - York Street Gallery - Kennebunk ME - Solo Exhibition Artworks have also been shown under the names: Erin Duquette & Erin McFarland |