Thomas Patrick Hammond

Here we have an artist with an exceptional, sensitive vision, one that recognizes nuances of value and hue, shadow and light; enabling him to translate his vision into images of  pictorial fluency.  Exposure to art  goes  back to the earliest days of his childhood. The presense of paints, brushes, canvas panels, along with museum trips and gallery visits were as constant as oatmeal and orange juice.  This has provided a strong foundation for the basics of design, drawing and composition.  Creating art has been a life-time passion providing adventure, stimulation and pleasure, in addition to a livelihood, since he was 19 years old.

Hammond’s art training is both formal and practical.  His formal education came from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio and at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  Throughout a 40 year career as a commercial artist, art director and creative director he has created illustrations for Fisher Design, Bank of America, KFC, FRCH International, and Disney D & E.

However, workshop experiences with nationally recognized artists such as Zoltan Szabo, Roberta Carter Clark, Florian Lawton, Paul McCormack, and Tom Lynch along with several local instructors have provided the most practical and rewarding education.

Award winning works of his have been included in shows at the Cincinnati Art Club and the American Watercolor Society.  He is also a member of the Portrait Society of America.  Portraits of people, pets, classic cars and homes are owned and displayed in residences and offices throughout the country.

“My goal is to master the transition between tight rendering and loose brushwork within a composition.  I try to establish a focal point which is articulated with detailed crispness and then provide a visual sanctuary, an oasis, for the eye within the backgrounds which dissolve into broad brush strokes of rich, gooey, dappled oil paint.”

Paintings are the culmination of many elements: technique, composition, the story behind the image, plus the all important emotion of the artist’s personal response to his subject.  Other elements also come into play such as a strong focal point, details specific to the physical characteristics of the subject.  And, the setting has to have the proper illusion of distance, scale and perspective.  These components are what is known as the craft of painting; they can be taught and honed over time.  The art of painting involves other intangible qualities.  The unteachable, elusive, artistic factors, are what makes the difference between competent, well-painted work, and an extrordinary painting.  The extraordinary aspects of art expression is what Hammond wishes to deliver.

Patrons have commisioned his work not only for their own personal delight but also as unique gifts for loved ones, of loved ones.   For this reason he says he has not specialized in any one genre.  “I paint what moves me whenever I’m not involved with a commission, I like experimenting.”  

“God,” Picasso once remarked, “Is the Master Artist, but still an artist like all the others.  He invented the giraffe, the elephant, the ox and the mole; along with cats, wolves and man.  He hasn’t a sigular style – He continues experimenting with all forms of creativity.”