Thierry Thompson

Thierry Thompson biography
“Those who appreciate the many aspects of aviation history, design and composition also tend to appreciate the artists with the ability to interpret the flying machines with great accuracy as an art form. This art genre is devoted to the image of aircraft as fine art, and there is no one more qualified or experienced to capture the fine art of aircraft and to bring the men and machines to life than Thierry Thompson. From the tender age of eight, when his father hand built a dual 2-cycle Tecumseh engine go-kart for his son, Thierry Thompson has been passionately involved with mechanics, engineering, aviation, cars, and motor-racing. Add to this an honors Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, Art History and Fine Art Restoration, and it becomes quite evident how Thierry achieves the echelon and intensity of extraordinary perfection in his artwork, by blending history, and surrealism with the precision detail of engineering and photo-realism. In addition to his aviation background and flight experiences which are only rivaled by the most experienced fighter pilot, Thierry is a member of the prestigious Air Force Art Program, and has won numerous international awards for his aviation fine art”.

Thierry (pronounced “Terry”) was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1951. An artist from “the first time I managed to hold a crayon”, Thierry was always reverse engineering things “so I could understand how they worked, often to the great chagrin of my parents”. In his formative teens and always with pencil in hand, Thierry worked as an apprentice draftsman under the tutelage of his grandfather who was the Chief Design Engineer for an international mining equipment manufacturer. When not drafting and design engineering, Thierry could always be found in his father's garage clinking wrenches on a concrete floor, pounding out dents in a sports car fender, or building an engine or gearbox on weekends and after high school. Thierry’s father restored and raced sports and classic cars as a hobby, and taught his young (eager-to-learn) son, expert welding, machining and metal fabrication, which would have a direct effect on Thierry’s future career as an artist and enthusiast of “anything mechanical”.

When Thierry was not working on his father’s sports cars, he could be found racing his kart in local karting events, or on the purpose built dirt track which Thierry’s father created behind the family home so Thierry could practice sliding a kart through a corner learning the dynamics of car control, or tearing up the local northern Ohio hills with a “very torquey” 250cc Husqvarna dirt bike with his racing friends.

While studying, painting, drawing, playing football and playing ice hockey in university, Thierry obtained an honors Bachelors of fine art degree in art history, art restoration and design engineering, writing his thesis on the painting styles of Rubens, Vermeer, Bernini, and Rembrandt, who were directly influenced by the enigmatic and controversial Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. “I have always greatly admired the works of the masters who painted with dramatic chiaroscuro lighting. Lighting effects which I have attempted to incorporate into my artistic style. Caravaggio drove the oscuro (shadows) into chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro was practiced long before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who defined the technique, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a single light source in a blinding shaft of light. Caravaggio and Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali are my all time favorite artists. Those extraordinary artists completely understood the dynamics of otherworldly single source lighting, and have had the greatest influence on my career as a painter and fine artist”.

As a result of his unique education and close apprenticeship with his father. Following university, Thierry decided to spend several years traveling internationally building and engineering sophisticated open-wheeled formula racecars, until he “gained all the knowledge of open-wheeled motor-racing I could absorb, and tired completely of the gypsy existence living out of a suitcase”. Today, Thierry is still heavily involved with automobiles and motor racing, as an avid Porsche collector with a collection of rare and exotic chassis’ from the German marque, and preparing and racing his Swift DB-1 Formula Ford and Swift 008 Formula Atlantic in SCCA Club Racing when “time permits, which is a rarity these days”.

Engineering and racing is a real “left brain sequential, rational and analytical function”, but Thierry continued his deep interest in Fine Art, further developing his creative “right brain”, painting and often times sketching drivers and race scenes in Formula One pits. It was during those “racing years” that Thierry created a Fine Art business where the artist produced a limited edition of racing themed paintings, and then appealed to the driver for his signature on the limited edition. Printing limited editions, and acquiring the driver’s signature is a concept Thierry was the first to create and set into the market.

Years later, Thierry is still very proud of this cutting-edge concept. “Thirty-five years ago when we first created driver signed limited edition prints, the driver, often with no consideration of their celebration or “status”, would agree to sign an edition of 500, in exchange for 10-20 prints. Today, a driver like seven time FIA Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher demands $500.00+ per signature”.

Following his engineering career in motor racing, Thierry, ever passionate about his fine art trained himself to operate an airbrush, started his own graphic design business and began a very successful career as a commercial and technical illustrator. The international advertising community immediately recognized Thierry’s talent, attention to detail and his exceptional drafting abilities. That resulted in Thierry commissioned by all of the international automotive and aerospace manufacturers in their high profile advertising campaigns (including creating numerous illustrations for the high profile and controversial Joe Camel account). “I absolutely love to create exploded, ghost views and cutaways of anything mechanical or technical. Seems like those early days of pulling things apart, in order to understand their inner mechanics, made a lasting impact!” Soon after launching his successful commercial and graphic art career, Thierry opened a fine art gallery exhibiting his Surrealism, Techno-Realism and Thierry’s realistic Automotive Fine Art in the Yorkville art district of Toronto, Ontario Canada.

In addition to his international award winning automotive fine art and commercial art, Thierry is an award winning aviation artist, and is a member of the prestigious Air Force Art Program, which works with select American aviation artists to procure historical fine art for the Pentagon, while documenting the worldwide efforts of the US Air Force. “ I have flown in just about every current Air Force airframe, and I have also had the enormous pleasure of flying off three different nuclear powered aircraft carriers, in Navy and Marine Corps jet aircraft, amazing experiences, to say the least”. Thierry is an IFR rated pilot, and his unique experiences in flying have a direct effect on his aviation fine art. “I love the three dimensions of flight, there is simply nothing on earth that matches the sheer power of an F-15 Eagle standing on its tail. I believe as a pilot, I bring a distinctive knowledge and experience to our aviation fine art, not unlike the unique knowledge and experiences I bring to our automotive and motor-racing fine art”.

Although Thierry still works with selected commercial and advertising clients, The artist often sets the gouache paints and airbrush aside, to paint with oils and hand brushes, to allow more of an “abstract” style. “Oil paints are probably my favorite medium, oils offer an organic flexibility that the linear and rigid airbrush using water based gouaches do not offer. With an airbrush, you can at times feel detached from the canvas or the board. It is always a welcome change to escape from the demands and rigidity of technical fine art, even though no other method or medium compares when it comes to creating perfect gradations and the ability to accurately and realistically render shiny, reflective and metallic surfaces”.

Thierry’s style is a radical naturalism and hyperrealism combined with close physical observation with a dramatic use of light and shadow, whether it is the shinny surfaces of an automobile, aircraft, a seascape or a landscape.

Thierry’s fine art education and artistic fine art career have indeed come full circle, and Thierry is on the fast track to international recognition with his new fine art and artistic creations. With the support of career-long collectors and patrons, friends and Beverly, who have repeatedly requested Thierry paint images that are not of automobile and aircraft theme. Where Thierry once used the landscapes as a backdrop for his automotive fine art, Thierry is finding that his fine art collectors are now demanding his peninsula landscapes and seascapes without the automobiles and aircraft.

Thierry and his wife Beverly currently live in the spectacular mountainous and vineyard textured setting of Carmel Valley near the Big Sur coast and the Monterey peninsula. The artist’s studio is surrounded with rugged California mountains, twisting valley oaks, and gracefully sinuous vineyards, while the artist lives just minutes from some of the Golden State’s naturally amazing and awe inspiring crown jewels; Big Sur, Point Lobos, Pebble Beach, Carmel Valley and the Monterey peninsula.

Because of this new and natural inspiration, Thierry has recently expanded his masterful portfolio to include the Monterey, California Peninsula landscapes and seascapes. “Since Beverly and I moved to the Monterey Peninsula in 1998, the Mediterranean like illumination, atmosphere and the micro climates have had an immense influence on my career as a Fine Artist. The beautiful scenery of this area has been begging me to place paint to canvas and interpret the stunning views. It is a blessing to be able to live, paint and “work” in such an inspirational environment, where Beverly and I once vacationed on a yearly basis. It truly is a painter’s paradise and it would be a shame not to paint all the beauty that the area offers. I believe that any artist, who can master the manipulation of light, can paint any subject, automobile or landscape. It is after-all, light, which determines how we see everything around us.

Beverly added, “Last year we acquired representation for Thierry’s landscape and seascape fine art at the Classic Art Gallery in Carmel, and we have several other galleries from around the world, who are very eager to carry our line of limited edition prints and Giclee’s, as a result, Beverly already has two years worth of commissions for Thierry’s landscapes and seascapes penciled in.

“Notwithstanding our new fine art ventures, we will continue to hold our annual exhibition of Thierry’s automotive and aviation fine art during the month of August, held during the Pebble Beach Councours D’Elegance, the historic races held at Laguna Seca, and the other exciting car events. We always look forward to meeting with old friends, patrons and fine art collectors who have been collecting Thierry’s automotive and aviation fine art for decades. With Thierry’s new landscape and seascape fine art, and with the demand for realistic landscapes increasing, we now have a new world to discover”.