Artist Thomas Paquette is currently featured at the Institute.  His exhibit, “Seeing the Trees: Gouache and Oil Paintings by Thomas Paquette” is on view through July 11^th.  Although Paquette's exhibition includes both gouache and oil paintings, a highlight of the show is addition of several new gouache works Paquette completed depicting scenes from the wooded areas surrounding the Institute.  Paquette has brought the Institute’s wooded setting to life in these vivid portrayals of nature.

A native of Minneapolis, Thomas Paquette grew up making art and relishing trips to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  He finished a BFA degree in Painting, graduating summa cum laude, at Bemidji State University in 1985. He went on to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on a full Fellowship to earn their three-year Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting, and has painted full-time ever since then.  He lived in Maine for ten years, during which time he painted the landscape, continued exhibiting in galleries around the country, and completed large public commissions.  He relocated to northwestern Pennsylvania on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest when he married his wife Ellen in 2001.

Paquette studied for a time to become a naturalist, and has always held a great concern for the environment.  He draws inspiration from the abundant natural world at his doorstep, but also from his more distant travels, including time spent in Europe. He paints on-site only in preliminary stages - most typically on a small scale in gouache - and doesn't consider a work done until it is back in his studio and has undergone usually much re-working.

Paquette's paintings have been featured in magazines and books, and in several dozen solo exhibitions at nationally prominent art galleries (in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Maine, Minneapolis, Washington DC) and museums (Georgia Museum of Art, Erie Art Museum, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Hoyt Institute of Fine Art).  As well, his works have been selected to hang in U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world, including embassies in St. Petersburg, Athens, Rome, Vienna, Santiago, and Taipei.

For more information about Thomas Paquette and his work, please visit his website at www.thomaspaquette.com.

Saturday, June 5, 7-9 pm - Meet-the-artist reception and gallery talk, featuring live music in the natural history library

$5/person; members, free