Tom Whiting, digital artist, will be joining us to talk about his art and his artistic process. Tom will prepare a small craft which participants will complete at the end of the session.

Tom Whiting's Bio:

Tom had an early interest in drawing. In Junior High School, his art teacher took an interest in him and noticed his talent. In high school, Tom took drawing and painting classes. In his senior year concentrated in art, taking extra art classes as he had completed his other requirements by the end of junior year. One thing Tom is particularly proud of is in his senior year the head of the high school art department chose one of his pieces for a solo exhibit in the high school lobby.

He attended Framingham State College (1977-1981) as a studio art major and art history minor. He took drawing, life drawing, painting, color theory, three-dimensional art, and ceramics. Tom left Framingham State prior to completing his degree with plans of becoming a professional artist. Then, life took over. He continued to draw, paint, and take ceramics classes on occasion. When his children attended Saint Michael School in Lowell, Tom was the head of the decorating committee and he supervised and created the decorations for several school and church auctions based on various themes. Other than that, his art career took second place to family life and a career in commercial real estate appraisal (valuing apartments, retail, office, industrial buildings for banks and other parties).

About five years ago at the encouragement of friends and family, Tom decided to throw himself back into art. Due to the small space he had available, he chose digital drawing and painting. Digital art also appealed to him because of its similarity to working with physical art tools. He creates his work on a computer screen with a digital stylus, which can act as pencil, pen, brush, palate knife, and airbrush. The work process is very similar to painting and drawing with physical media such as pencil, pen and ink, and acrylics. For the most part, Tom works in a realistic style, but also occasionally ventures into abstract and conceptual art. The past year or so, Tom has concentrated on building his skill set in preparation of finally taking the step to becoming a professional artist.

In September 2020 he was juried in as a studio artist working in digital media at the Brush Art Gallery & Studios, and works in the presence of the ten other fine artists there. Tom’s work has appeared in many shows in the greater Lowell area including the Whistler House, Gallery Z, Arts League of Lowell, The Brush, Chelmsford Library, and the Westford Parish Center for the Arts. At the Westford show in 2023 Tom won first place in the adult computer art category.