"I like to travel with the barest itinerary in order to maximize the event, the moment, the experience. Of course this means a lot of wandering and wondering, but also some wonderful surprises. And so it is with my art: Each painting is its own journey. I suppose this is why roadways figure prominently in many of my works. The roads are both a metaphor for the journey of painting, and also the physical reality that is integral to my – and, no doubt, your – life. The less I consider its finished destiny – that is, the less I plan how to arrive most efficiently at the end – the more often the painting is a successful, aesthetically rewarding adventure. Being creatively responsive in each moment of painting is the crux, with all moments of that journey offering potential new destinations. I relish the unexpected twists a painting might take when it is not a predetermined product. It is like waking up in Italy after deciding just the day before you should take a little vacation."
-Thomas Paquette

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Thomas has painted full-time since finishing graduate school in Illinois in1988.  His paintings have been the focus of more than thirty one-man exhibitions at prominent art galleries and museums around the country. Dozens of his works were selected to hang in U.S. Embassies around the world, from St. Petersburg to Rome, Vienna, Athens, Taipei, San Salvador, Phnom Penh, Latvia, and Chile, Chad and Cuba. In addition to other residencies -- including one on the Greek island of Lesvos, and others at Acadia, Rocky Mountain, and Yosemite National Parks -- Thomas was honored as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2000, and also for three years in Miami as a Residency-Fellowship recipient from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. He has completed several large commissions including a major one for the Federal Reserve Bank, and a thirty-two foot canvas for a college in Minnesota. In 2006, he was a guest of Ambassador Ries in Athens, where Paquette gave lectures and had paintings on display. He lives with his wife in northwest Pennsylvania, on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest.