Thomas Kinkade - Collectable or Dust Collector

Can a person get diabetes from looking at too many 'sugary' paintings? Let's hope not. One of the schmaltsiest painters is Thomas Kinkade, whose cute little cottages with lights aglow from inside, have been turned into a one man industry.

Thomas Kinkade calls himself 'the painter of light.' One writer Joan Didion described Kinkade's over bright houses as being 'lit, to lurid effect, as if the interior of the structure may be on fire.' Whether a country retreat, or a Victorian house in the suburbs, Kinkade's paintings look like Christmas card illustrations Viewers never have to struggle to understand what the graphic image communicates. There is a feeling of a comfortable home. That's all. If you can supply the happy memories, or future hopes of domestic contentment the picture is complete. Who wouldn't be happy with such thoughts?

This feeling of happiness has been transformed by Kinkade into a profitable company. Vincent Van Gough could only sell a few paintings while he was alive; a hundred years after his death his 'Sunflowers' has been sold for $100,000,000. Thomas Kinkade took a shortcut to riches when he began to mass produce his works as high priced prints. He set up a company, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and had 350 retail outlets across the US to peddle his wares. Many people bought expensive repr.