Edward Thomas is an artist, architect, and historian. His work conveys a sense of immediacy as he renders life-like realities faithfully, while maintaining a sense of abstraction within the paintings.  In his work, Thomas taps into the unconscious and allows the imagery to reveal itself through a series of biological mechanisms, such as the kinetics of motion. His paintings at Second Street will be displayed in various types of praxinoscopes, to convey a sense of stop-motion animation through use of these late-19th-century devices, modified to run on a record player and in video installations within this body of work. Each series of paintings will consider distinct applications of praxinoscope technology – from manual to turntable settings; and from analog to digital reinventions that allow him to convert the work from video to painting to stop-frame motion.

“I record my world in an archival medium, without artificial interface between the subject and my eyes nor between my eyes and the emerging piece; painting with oils, out of doors, from direct observation. I strive to achieve paintings that not only are faithful recordings of the site and weather conditions but, upon closer inspection, can hold their own on an Abstract level of pure color and mark making. To make possible this dual existence of paint I believe two things are crucial. Practice, and a minimum of thought during the act of painting. Thinking gets in the way and leads to artifice; painting what you think is there rather than what is there. What the eye sees must be transposed directly to the fingers holding the brush. The muscles know precisely what chords of color to pick off the palette in response to what the eye has seen. Thus the paint is laid down with a minimum of thought but instead with the unconscious patterning of a muscle that has made this notation a million times before. The paint is laid down precisely enough to satisfy the needs of representing the subject, but with an immediacy enough to satisfy the Abstract demand that the paint be paint.”

- Edward Thomas

Edward Thomas (b. 1972, Charlottesville, VA) was educated at the University of Virginia and the Royal Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen. His work is held in numerous public and private collections.

EXHIBITION SPONSORS

This exhibition is in collaboration Stephen Thomas and Filament Productions and generously supported by the Women 4 Art Exhibition Fund.

Anonymous (4) • Chloe Ball • Erica Barnes • Nancy Bass
Colleen Bassett • Kelli Block • Janis S. Chevalier • Courtney Coker
Karen Jaegerman Collins • Elizabeth Crawford • Scheline Crutchfield
Charlotte Dammann • Deirdre Davie • Catherine Dee • Julie Dixon
Lisa Draine • Therese Elron • Stacey Evans • Susan Fleischmann
Pamela Cole Friedman • Sylvia Gage • Linda Goodling in Memory of Janet King
Deanna Gould • Cathy Kramer • Holen Lewis • Dr. Anna Magee
Monica Markelz • Virginia Michel • Hollins Mills • Lynn Mills
Mary Murray • Annette Owens • Audrey Sipe Phillips • Elizabeth Piper
Barbara Shifflett • Jane-Ashley Skinner • Anne Slaughter • Jennifer Slaughter
Russell Willis Taylor • Claire Holman Thompson • Linda Wachtmeister
Jennis Warren • Lyn Bolen Warren • Marilyn Wright • Sarah Boyts Yoder
Megan Eagle Kingdon • Tosha Grantham • Cate West Zahl
Sara Lee Barnes • Judy Rasmussen • Caroline Nunley Satira