The only thing I will say about Kinkade is that I went though a period of depression in the Nineties when all sorts of serious problems developed in my family and in my work situation at the same time.  One of the things that really comforted me and cheered me up during that dark period was buying several books showing his paintings, mostly of cottages and idealized small town and church scenes.  I used to spend a lot of time looking at those pictures and thinking of a time when things would get better.

For me Kinkade’s art does not show the world as it ought to be.  His work does not portray an Edenic world.  To me the light in his paintings remain a cold artificial light that does not present a glow of hope and peace no matter how profuse it is.  The light does not have as its source the author of all beauty.  Its purpose is to blind us to flaws not to illuminate virtues. 

instead of making us turn to thoughts of God and the realization of His works amongst us and the mystery of the Incarnation (which I would argue is the purpose of Art when seen from a Christian aesthetic) Kinkade’s paintings draw us to a false light.  There is nothing that is appreciated and celebrated for its own beauty in his art; rather the flowers, the trees, the paths, the rivers are there to make us believe it is the false light that makes things beautiful.  His paintings lack grace. 

This is not Eden, this is stage craft.  Artifice is not beauty.  I think it is sad that so many have forgotten what true beauty really is and believe that Kinkade’s vision is a homage to it.

Paula said it very politely and very well. I would not have been so kind. Such sentimentality and false decoration is not art and in fact is a blight. Kinkaide’s paintings deserve to be forgotten for they intrude on the blank space that could be filled with beauty.

Well put, Paula.  You are familiar with Simcha Fisher’s article on Kinkade as an anti-Incarnational painter?

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/whats-so-bad-about-thomas-kinkade

Yes Todd and he put to words much of what bothered me about Kinkade’s art.  The sad thing is that Kinkade’s earlier work are very fine examples of California Plein Air.

Jim,
I am glad that you found comfort in Kinkade’s work.  I did not mean in any way to call that into question.

Paula—No worries, no offense taken.