Page recreated from NurtureArt.org, August 2009

August Featured Registry Artist

Tamara Thomsen



Stairway 2008, watercolor on paper, 34" x 47”

Tamara Thomsen is a Brooklyn-based artist whose installation and painting works are explorations of natural, interior, and historical architectural spaces and informed by a strong design ethic.  Her current series of large-scale watercolors, Chambers, is inspired by a Philadelphia colonial mansion and its classicism, symmetry, and direct connections to a previous era. Thomsen’s color choices are subtly fantastical and dream-like. Soft washes contrast with more intense pigments, but nothing is fixed or impenetrable. Stairway, the image above, as well as one other painting from this series, have been produced as limited edition prints, for sale now at 20x200.com. View the prints and read what 20x200 owner Jen Bekman has to say about Tamara here.

Two of Thomsen’s previous installations, Outta My Gourd – consisting of an actual hard shell gourd garden – and A Ruched Life, an installation of fabric, wire, and painted creations, as well as a painting series Around the Corner, also created new spaces and toyed with ideas of fancy and embellishment. Around the Corner depicted pre-war commercial buildings in Long Island City and was exhibited as a solo exhibition at Tillie’s coffee shop in Fort Greene in 2007.

Thomsen received a BFA in Painting from Syracuse University and an MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been living in New York since 1980, and several years ago co-founded the design group Smart Design, whose products now sell at such outlets as Target and the MoMA design store. Her studio is located in Gowanus, Brooklyn. More images and a full artist resume and statement can be found in the NURTUREart Artist Registry. Visit her website at www.tamarathomsen.com.

To learn about the NURTUREart  Featured Registry Artist Program and see an archive of past featured artists click here.