# RIP Thomas Kinkade **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058 "2012-04-07T03:21:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/21 "2012-04-07T06:47:40Z")
My father in law loves the stuff. Their household used to overdo Christmas decorating… no nook cranny door knob, etc was left unfestooned and they had to move furniture into the garage to accomodate a 4 ft x 4ft creche in the living room. And the Santa village with over 70 light up ceramic stores, houses etc. Thomas Kinkade stuff figured largely in the decorations, but there was plenty of TK’s stuff around the house year round too. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/22 "2012-04-07T06:53:14Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > I seriously doubt your WAG. [MSNBC](http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/06/11064422-painter-of-light-artist-thomas-kinkade-dies-at-age-54) has this: > I won’t speak to how accurate the _San Jose Mercury News_ is regarding their estimates, but I can say that my personal experience pegs it about that number. But I’m counting the mass produced prints, too. Just for the hell of it, I sent an email to the author of the story asking where that stat comes from. Maybe I’ll get an answer, but probably not. I mentioned their paper wrote a couple of nice articles about me a few years back, for whatever that’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/23 "2012-04-07T07:48:27Z")
My sister lives in Shingle Springs, a stones throw from Placerville. When we visited there a few summers ago we had lunch in Placerville and visited his gallery. We didn’t buy anything because it seemed overpriced. Began an investigation (internet style) of him soon after. Didn’t see too much of what I’d like about him as a human, but many people OOOHH and AAAHH about his work. Guy is a hack, but I guess a good marketeer (or racketeer 😃 ). Amazingly, the next Christmas I got a coffee mug with a Thomas Kincade painting on it from my daughter in law. It’s kind of big, but the coffee tastes fine. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/24 "2012-04-07T07:55:41Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Just for the hell of it, I sent an email to the author of the story asking where that stat comes from. Maybe I’ll get an answer, but probably not. I mentioned their paper wrote a couple of nice articles about me a few years back, for whatever that’s worth. I am very curious about how they found those numbers, too. But, interestingly, enough, the OP started a poll that is currently running 4 to 82. That’s pretty much one in twenty, and I would expect the SDMB to be less than that, but this poll is far from scientific or statistically valid. Still, though. It’s got to be closer to 1 in 20 than it is to 1 in 500. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/25 "2012-04-07T08:10:21Z")
One other thing, The article specifies “paintings”, not other stuff like coffee mugs and Christmas ornaments. The OP doesn’t ask quite the same thing, and I wonder if that’s skewing results. Though, frankly, “paintings” has got to be wrong. There’s something like a hundred million households in the US, and I don’t imagine Kinkade and a slave army of hack painters could produce 5 million paintings. So it’s got to include prints at the **least** , and probably also includes every coffee mug, drink coaster, and ornament they ever sold. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/26 "2012-04-07T08:46:18Z")
I think I remember my sister having one of his things on her wall the last time I visited, which absolutely comes as no surprise. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/27 "2012-04-07T08:53:39Z")
Fuck that tacky motherfucking asshole and his lousy paintings. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/28 "2012-04-07T08:55:07Z")
Don’t hold back! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/29 "2012-04-07T08:56:40Z")
Who was the German TV painter who the “mighty, mighty” this and that? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/30 "2012-04-07T09:52:34Z")
I have literally never knowingly seen one of his paintings. I don’t say that as a snob–I just have no idea what his pictures looked like enough to recognize his work. And I’m a QVC watcher! (But only for the Prindables treats… damn those awesome apples!) > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Who was the German TV painter who the “mighty, mighty” this and that? Herr Richard James? ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/31 "2012-04-07T09:59:57Z")
I wouldn’t pay actual money for any of his work, but still, I do own one. Oh, and it’s not real. It’s just a print. A _large_, Deity-forsaken print. I inherited it from my mother, upon her passing. It’s in my bedroom closet, because I really don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/32 "2012-04-07T10:42:40Z")
I liked some of his earlier landscapes. He really was quite good with the natural lighting. But either he realized that or someone told him and he took it to the extreme. By the time he started putting in Hobbit cottages or lighthouses in everything. He had lost me long before. Never owned anything by him. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/33 "2012-04-07T10:55:08Z")
I think this illustrates what I don’t like about his stuff [typical Kinkade](http://www.artofthesouth.com/Thomas_Kinkade/chicagowinteratthewatertower.php) [Kinkade that isn’t actually that bad](http://www.kinkadeartwork.net/page00000064.html) There’s something about the less detailed painting that evokes more feeling than the hyper detailed “normal” Kinkade style. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/34 "2012-04-07T11:03:22Z")
[Edward Hopper](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/landscapes/hopper.lighthouse-2-lights.jpg) painted light; Kinkade painted shite. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/35 "2012-04-07T11:06:24Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Who was the German TV painter who the “mighty, mighty” this and that? I believe that was the guy who preceded Bob Ross, and I can’t remember his name either. But he did basically the same stuff as Happy Bob. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/36 "2012-04-07T11:19:41Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > [Edward Hopper](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/landscapes/hopper.lighthouse-2-lights.jpg) painted light; Kinkade painted shite. Nice example. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/37 "2012-04-07T11:22:43Z")
How JMW Turner painted [light](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_Fishermen_at_Sea_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) ca 1796. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/38 "2012-04-07T11:33:28Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > How JMW Turner painted [light](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_Fishermen_at_Sea_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) ca 1796. Thank you. Kinkade can rot, preferable composted with all the trash he produced in his career so we don’t have to smell him. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/39 "2012-04-07T11:34:17Z")
Something Awful had pretty funny examples of satirical [Kinkades](http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/paintings-light-part.php). I don’t own any, and only know of one person who did. To me, they always seemed cartoonish (I remember visiting a Kinkade gallery with that person). ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/40 "2012-04-07T12:32:33Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > So it’s got to include prints at the **least** , and probably also includes every coffee mug, drink coaster, and ornament they ever sold. And jigsaw puzzles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058.md?page=3)