Living History | Thomas Paquette

With strong local ties to the Twin Cities, Paquette's highly anticipated new large and small-scale works will be featured in this first solo exhibition in Minneapolis since 2021. Recognized for his highly textured, vast landscapes and complimentary colors, Thomas Paquette has been a full-time painter since 1988. He has maintained studios in Minneapolis and Portland, Maine; since 2001, he has lived and worked at the edge of the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. Born in Minneapolis in 1958, Paquette earned a BFA in Painting from Bemidji State University in Minnesota, graduating in 1985. He completed his MFA in Painting on a full fellowship from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 1988. Paquette’s work is widely collected and exhibited, and features prominently in galleries in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Washington, DC, and smaller cities around the country.

Focusing on North America's old-growth forests, Living History serves as a visual reminder that these biological entities, though impermanent, are foundational and steadfast. Bearing in mind the infinite ecosystems of the natural world, Paquette constructs the surface organically and traditionally, utilizing thin to thick layers of oil paint or gouache. Paquette, a sophisticated colorist, visually demonstrates the ever-present intersection of human nature and the reliable, and grounding, landscape. Of this new work, he writes:

“I’d like to talk about my subject matter, “nature.” I am drawn to paint the natural world “being itself” as it were – without undue focus on human presence, just as you might expect from someone who took a detour in his education in art, to study for a while to be a naturalist.

“Lately though, I have been even more focused on a particular subset of the subject: old-growth forests. Though I have painted such forests since at least 1993, I now find myself captivated. Such ancient forests are characterized by trees and other forest denizens that have lived with no discernable human impact for at least many generations, and from time immemorial in the best cases. They comprise exquisite strains of the distant past, delicately balanced with a profusion of finely tuned life forms. They are the unique results of stirring together particular geologic, climatic, and biological forces, which are then simmered for eons, and served without the collapse or clumsy order humans normally inflict on the time-tested recipe.“I like exploring and feeling part of these incredibly dense ecologies, where they can still be found. Though rarer in the East and Midwest than the West, remarkable stands still exist there today. I take near and far-flung journeys just to see and paint them.

“I have always considered my landscape paintings “grown” as a landscape itself is formed. I start simply with high-key colors in thin paint, and progress to a detailed (in an abstract way), often highly textured surface of modulated colors. In a process analogous to geomorphology, the painting surface is continually reshaped by the forces coming from alternating chaos with order, brash brush strokes that are then tempered or knifed down to the surface or reapplied, and a lot of abstract adaptations that finally arrive at a semblance of the subject you recognize as a landscape."

“I consider myself something of a realist, but throughout the painting process I forgo a tight attachment to realism. Rather, I am compelled to squeeze a sort of realism or truth from gestural, accreted, or slightly chaotic painting surfaces. My goal is to replay for viewers the experience of nature seen; emulation without imitation.”

Living History will be on view May 30 - July 4, 2026 at Lowry Hill Gallery. Thomas Paquette will give an artist talk at the gallery at 4pm on Saturday, May 30 directly prior to the opening reception from 5-8pm. Running concurrently will be In Focus by Carl Oltvedt and a special exhibition of work by Rowan & Bly Pope.