Local Artist Offering Classes at Cultural Arts Centre

Area artist Jerry Thomas work is represented around the St. Louis area and on five continents. Thomas is not only an artist, but also an accomplished art instructor who teaches throughout the Metro area.  

In fact, St. Peters artist  gave credit to Thomas for getting her back in front of her easel after she stepped away from it for 50 years.  

Thomas has paintings and drawings at major businesses and corporations throughout the St. Louis area, such as Laclede Steel, Anheuser-Busch, The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, and more artwork placed at many other companies for their advertising and boardrooms. 

The painter’s pieces can be seen at Norton's Fine Art and Framing. Thomas said he has used Norton’s as his display gallery for about 40 years.

Thomas has taught at St. Louis  and St. Charles Community Colleges, the St. Louis Artists' Guild, and other special venues. Currently, he is teaching The  Art Clinic at the St. Peters Cultural Arts Centre. The workshop is open for artists of all levels of expertise and is from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Friday.  The fee is $12 for members of the Arts Centre; $15 for non-members. 

Thomas also teaches special classes for the Arts Centre in the subject areas of anatomy, landscape, florals and many others.

While Thomas does hold a liberal arts degree, he has no formal art education. Thomas said he has done a lot of hands-on learning, through reading art books, visiting museums and galleries and meeting other artists. Ultimately, art was his first love and he has been creating since he was a small child.

 “I drew and painted before I talked as a child,” he said.

The self-taught artist said many of his family members have artistic talents as well.

“My family, both paternal and maternal, were all artistically inclined,” Thomas said.

His career has spanned several decades and his style is eclectic. Thomas works in all types of mediums and said he paints everything from abstraction to realism.

 “I split my career between ‘commercial’ art and ‘fine’ art," he said. "By working in the commercial field, I had to learn good drawing and painting and learn it fast.  If I didn't know how to do a project, I worked until I ‘got’ it."

Thomas said he has been a professional artist for more than 57 years, and self-employed for 54 years.  

“I paint what inspires me at the moment and challenges me," he said. "I make it a point to learn some new thing about art each day."

In addition to his other accomplishments, Thomas created the largest collection of artwork (315 paintings and drawings) of the Missouri Botanical Garden which was ever done by any individual artist.