San Francisco native Thomas Wood grew up in a house filled with paintings and sculpture, and art was a frequent topic of conversation. He was inspired by his artist parents Mireille and Phil Wood and his maternal grandfather Gottardo Piazzoni. Other influential artists in his family include his cousin Russ Chatham and great-uncle Maurice del Mué. All were practitioners of landscape painting.
He began painting when he was around eight at the family's ranch in Carmel Valley, when his parents set him up with easel, sketch box, brushes and oil paints.
He painted the oaks and grassy hills and brushy canyons. There was a freedom and excitement in going out into nature and trying to paint what he was seeing. It was fascinating to him that he could create a version of reality that sometimes captured something satisfying and true.
As teenagers, he and his cousin Russ painted small sketches during summers. They would tack their paintings onto the wall of the ranch house porch – an impromptu rural art gallery.
Earning a B.A. (University of California Berkeley) and an M.A. (San Francisco State University) in English, he taught college composition and literature for several years in New York and California. He also worked in educational media and photography, and was active in theater and music.
In the 1980s he decided to make art his vocation, and has since exhibited professionally in numerous successful one-man and group shows. His paintings hang in many private collections.
He lives in Marin County, California.
"I enjoy being in nature and painting landscapes. I go to familiar areas or explore new territory in search of a motif and do a lot of looking until I see what might make a composition, something I will enjoy painting. If I like the result I hope you will too.
"I complete most paintings on location, some perhaps serving as a basis for larger studio canvases. Facility in the field comes from practice, and efficient portable equipment: backpack, tripod, paint box and shade umbrella.
"My approach is to closely observe, without preconception, formula, premeditated style or fashion. I would call it a kind of naturalism, conveying the sense of real places.
"The landscape is emblematic of the life-cycle and is the envelope of our existence. It's suggestive of past and future, evoking memory and time, history and dreams. I want my paintings to reflect these qualities."