A native of Northwestern Pennsylvania, where he still resides, Thomas McNickle is surrounded by a landscape that has inspired his work for decades. McNickle studied at Edinboro State University in Pennsylvania and is an elected member of the American, National, Pennsylvania, and the Pittsburgh Watercolor Societies. His work has been exhibited in over fifty museum and gallery exhibitions and has been collected in public, private, and permanent collections, including the Butler Institute of American Art, the Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, Vero Beach Center for the Arts, Kansas State University, and the Mint Museum, among others.
McNickle paints both in the studio and on location. When he paints outdoors, the work often serves as studies for larger watercolors and oils done in the studio and allows the artist to re-experience the time and place. McNickle paints in a relaxed concentration, an essential element of the philosophy Zen, as layers of spontaneous strokes of color develop into images. Approaching each painting in a meditative state, McNickle typically completes large watercolors in one sitting.