What Might Happen?

Thomas Paquette's Mississippi River Odyssey

Palimpsest Oil 36 x 48”

Thomas Paquette is a master painter with a decades-long career of continuous exhibitions of his unique and beautiful landscape oil paintings and gouaches. He is known for painting wildernesses, having focused his attentions on nature in its pristine forms, often found in secluded preserves and national parks. I first got to know Thomas when both he and I had artist residencies at Yosemite National Park in 1997. Since then have managed to stay in touch. Thomas had already developed a style of working oil paint which gave his landscape paintings an unmistakably unique look. Since then he has continued to add subtlety to his technique and his palette, all built on a foundation of excellence in composition and design. We spoke at length about that and the idea behind his exhibition, America’s River Re-Explored: Paintings of the Mississippi from Source to Gulf (2018) at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, Minneso…