Chances are, you’ve seen a Thomas Kinkade painting in your time. They feature pastel-colored landscapes bursting with flowers, sunsets, lighthouses and shimmering windows. Kinkade, who died in 2012, was a prolific artist with a marketable, democratic approach to making and selling art. His work could be found, for example, on the QVC shopping channel. An article in the Washington Post estimates that a Kinkade painting hangs in one in twenty homes across the US.
The press wasn’t all good. Art critics described his work in terms like “saccharine” and “sentimental.” They criticized everything from the technique to the paintings’ mass production.
There are critics, but then there are people like Jeff Bennett. He’s a graphic designer of Alien Artisan. He also decided to transform these critiqued works into something anyone could love.
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Kinkade’s work has long been the subject of tongue-in-cheek projects like this. (Probably because of its popularity and kitschy sensibilities.) In 2004, the Something Awful forums even held a contest where users could submit their own altered versions of Kinkade’s work.
…but even if you love Kinkade’s work, you have to admit that these updated paintings are pretty fantastic.
