Thomas Kinkade

William Thomas Kinkade III (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for his success, during his lifetime, with the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via the Thomas Kinkade Company. According to Kinkade's company, one in every twenty American homes owns a copy of one of his paintings.He described himself as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light", a phrase he protected through trademark, but which was originally used hundreds of years ago to describe the English artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851).