Squash Blossom is proud to have worked with Thomas Owen for nearly forty years. We have been carrying and selling his paintings since the late 1970s, and continue doing so even after his passing in March of 2019.
Owen’s love of painting began early in life. He grew up in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania, visiting Chesapeake Bay as a child. He recalls that one of his first paintings was of a fireboat in the New York Harbor. The first painting he ever sold was of sailboats moored in the bay.
Owen has excelled in both art and athletics. He attended Northwest Missouri State University on a football scholarship and upon moving to Colorado, he became a competitive skier. Owen worked as an educator for over forty years. His accomplishments as a painter are numerous, winning over 60 awards for his work. He is also a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society. Many of Owen’s paintings are done in watercolor, however he also uses pastel and oil. He strives to paint his subjects in the medium that best represents them.
In addition to his legacy as a painter, he has a lasting legacy as an educator. His degree was in education, something he put to use by teaching painting at Pike’s Peak Community College and presenting in workshops all around Colorado. He taught another of the Squash Blossom’s artists, the painter JR Monks. In addition to the classroom setting, he also kept a blog for a few years, giving an insight into the life of a painter and giving tips to budding artists. He wrote, “Watercolor is a wonderful medium for giving the artist gifts; they've often been called "divine accidents". Taking advantage of these gifts adds magical energy to a painting. We learn to see and use these unexpected wonders by playing with paints. Not every painting needs to be a masterpiece: don't take yourself too seriously. Take time to play with paint, take risks, and push limits just to see what will happen -- this can be reason enough to paint. Watch and observe and tap into your creative process.”
Owen estimates that in his lifetime, he has completed over 1,000 paintings. Stop by the Squash Blossom to see a wide variety of these works from stormy coastal scenes, to iconic Colorado Aspens, to skiers hitting the slopes.