In the 16 years since Evansville Living introduced readers to the work of Chris Thomas, the painter has leaned more into teaching out of his studio in Downtown Henderson, Kentucky, and gained a national following.
He’s also changed the focus of his realist oil paintings over time. “Between 2008 and 2013, I was doing toys in paintings and more things like that,” he says. Now, “I don’t do whimsical things. … It’s not where I’m at anymore. In the last couple years, I’ve been into still life and nature items. I’m going outside more, trying to look around me.”
Embracing the outdoors has deepened his connection to his art subjects. “I like to go out and see things; things that seem to me to be really beautiful, everything from dandelions, daffodils, peonies, and other things that catch my eye,” he says. “I’ll take them, arrange them, and try to draw that. And when a bee lands on a flower, it adds life to a painting.”
Such was the case as Thomas painted “The Gathering,” a richly colored depiction of a jar of honey, lavender sprigs, dripping combs, and buzzing honeybees. The vivid still life won the highest honor at the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society’s 2025 Best of America International Juried Exhibition in Indianapolis — impressive for an artist who, apart from a brief summer session in 1992 at the Art Students League in New York City, is self-taught.
“I’m into trompe l’oeil — it’s a French expression that means ‘trick the eye.’ I feel it can pull in viewers to a painting, like the lavender with the bee — most bumblebees love that — and the honey dripping,” Thomas says. “I sometimes take photographs. And videos — I catch stills from the videos. I even put my iPhone on slow motion, and I could get really close to them.” His dedication to the technique has paid off: At the Art Renewal Center’s 18th International ARC Salon Competition in New York City this year, he won Best Trompe l’oeil for “Wild and Free,” a simple, grounded work noting the natural cycle of dandelions.
Curt Nance, who has known Thomas for more than 30 years, helped him realize the value of his work and frequently sells his paintings at Nance Galleries, his family’s nearly 80-year-old shop on Evansville’s East Side. “He’s a great artist and art teacher. And he’s capable of doing about anything in art,” Nance says. “He can do 15th- and 16th century-style works, and he’s experimented with a lot of styles and techniques just to try to understand these painters’ perspectives. I’ve seen him able to master many different styles of painting and still retain his own visual voice.”
