"Jewel Orchids in Bloom" Print - John Paul Thomas

"Jewel Orchids in Bloom" watercolor print by John Paul Thomas Image Height:  26.5" Image Width: 17.5" Paper Height: 30.5" Paper Width: 21.6" This contemporary painting is made using watercolor and is now available as ink on paper poster print. John Paul Thomas was born in Bessemer, Alabama.  He enlisted in the Navy fall of 1944.  He received a B.A. degree in 1951 from The New School and an M.A. degree in 1954 from New York University, where he studied under William Baziotes.  He spent a year (1954-1955) in Rome, Italy studying Italian Renaissance painting.  Upon returning to the U.S., he established studios in Los Angeles, then San Francisco and Marin County before moving to the Kona district of Hawai'i in 1970, where he worked for thirty-one years until his death.  He is buried at Kona Veterans Cemetery.  Thomas is among the foremost painters in Hawai'i.  His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in over 200 solo and ground exhibitions in museums, universities and art galleries. The Hawai'i State Senate, Hawai'i State House of Representatives  and the Hawai'i Island County Council have issued him commendations for his contributions to the culture of the Islands. The Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts has purchased his work for the State Collection, and he received commissions to create art for state buildings, most notably to create a memorial painting for the 150th anniversary of Washington Place, former home of Queen Liliuokalani and Hawaii State Governors, now a National Historic Landmark.