Artist Bio

Thomas Stotts grew up in Oklahoma City and graduated from Northwest Classen High School. He has been painting since childhood, always admiring the beauty and mystery of the thunder clouds that would move in across the plains and the sunsets he beheld. After painting landscapes early in his career, he expanded into contemporary landscape and abstract work.

Most of his early work was photo-realistic, but after 15-20 years of painting, he moved into a more impressionist style.

“I had to loosen up,” he says. “It was becoming drudgery. I tell my students, ‘Sometimes, to be a better artist, you have to lower your standards. Just loosen up and let it flow.’ Since I did that, it’s never drudgery to me. It’s more fun.”

Piece Description

“Everything here is red, but I was thinking, just under that red, the AAA is made of gold, because it’s providing such a great thing for the city. Even if you don’t work here, this can move the needle a little bit just for helping the city with things like streets. Thomas told me about his grandfather and how he started Kimray, and I thought, legacies are kind of like gold.

“So I decided to work some gold into this. And then I thought I could have a little bit of gold showing through like if you scratched the surface. And then doing the background, the gold worked really well with the red.”

The finished product is acrylic on canvas that has been textured to allow different layers of paint to show through. The combination of the soft, impressionistic look and the tactile look that comes from the preparation of the canvas makes Thomas’ AAA stand out.