Intimate landscapes: Thomas Paquette
part 1: Through November 15
Part 2: December 11, 2026 - July 3, 2027
Thomas Paquette | Highland Ponies, Glen Mor, Alladale Wilderness | Oil on Canvas | 2019 | On loan from Andrew and Michele Sokolski
on view
Nicholas Gallery
Some places don't let go. For over three decades, artist Thomas Paquette has returned again and again to the same handful of landscapes — not to finish them, but to see them differently each time.
Working in gouache, Paquette builds up layers of paint over years, sometimes returning to a single canvas long after he thought it was done. The results feel unfinished in the best way: edges open outward instead of stopping hard, and up close, small flecks of color seem to catch light like a photograph developing in a darkroom. Several paintings exist in pairs or series — the same place, painted more than once, because it never looked quite the same twice.
Intimate Landscapes is a quiet rebuttal to how fast we usually look at things. Slow down, and the paintings reward it.
Due to the light sensitivity of gouache, the exhibition is presented in two parts:
Part One (1992–2006): June 10 – November 15, 2026
Part Two (2007–2026): December 11, 2026 – July 3, 2027
events
ARTIST TALK: THOMAS PAQUETTE
July 31, 2026
5-6:30 pm
GALLERY NIGHT
September 18, 2026
5-10 pm
GALLERY NIGHT
December 11, 2026
5-10 pm
thomas paquette
artist
Thomas Paquette, who originally hails from Minneapolis, dropped out of art school midway through his first year, constructing his own studies of the world through a decidedly unacademic course: On and off for the next six years, he explored North America and its great natural places by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains that carried him many thousands of miles back and forth to the edges of the continent and as far away as Alaska, where the rails and roads ran out. He quite literally immersed himself in the landscape, intermittently returning to work on his academic degrees.
After those vagabonding years he graduated summa cum laude from Bemidji State University in Minnesota with BFA in Painting, and finished an MFA degree in Painting on a full fellowship at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He has been a full-time painter since his formal studies ended. His works have been displayed in more than seventy solo exhibitions in several museums and galleries across the country.
Select artworks available to purchase on Thomas Paquette’s website
