Emmitt Thames

Art Brokerage: Emmitt Thames American Artist: b. 1933. Essentially a self-taught artist, Emmitt Thames, born October 28, 1933, in Brookhaven, Mississippi, progressed from a rural depression-era childhood into the ranks of the leading American realists. His youth spawned a hardworking, somewhat reclusive man, who honed his innate skills for observation and composition into representational art that can accurately be described as "more feeling than formula." His early concerns were helping the family grow enough cotton and produce to pay for the necessities of life. Fine arts were not a part of his life then and certainly did not constitute latent ambition to be a "working" artist. Rather, drawing and whittling literally provided amusement for Emmitt in an otherwise mundane youth. However, Emmitt was never really discouraged from pursuing creativity in his idle hours, but the lack, albeit, the ignorance, of fine brushes and paints and all of the other artist accessories were unknown to him in his youth. Represented through the years by galleries in Chicago, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Jackson, Mississippi, and West Point, Mississippi, Emmitt's watercolors, egg temperas, gouaches, and oils have found homes in virtually all of the fifty states. Mr. Thames has won many awards through the years, and examples of his work are in museums, government, corporate and university collections as well as hundreds of private collections.