With his remarkable, bold paintings of wine, Thomas Arvid is quickly earning himself a national reputation as a rising star. With his original, photo-realistic approach to the still life, and the passion he brings to it, Thomas has captured the collective imagination of wine collectors and art collectors alike.

In addition to being a painter of wine, Thomas is a lover of wine, and his passion for his subject and the good life it evokes is evident in his work. “Wine is a work of art. Winemakers are truly artists, and the community amongst them is a creative artistic community. They put the same passion into crafting wine that I put into the composition of a painting. Just like art, wine means different things to different people.”

Born and raised in a blue-collar work focused culture in Detroit, Thomas considers his creative abilities innate. The self-taught artist has never attended art school but has worked hard to perfect his craft. Thomas moved to Atlanta in 1986, and in the fall of 1992, Thomas began painting at the newly opened Cafe Tu Tu Tango a combination restaurant/art gallery/studio which has been the launching pad for many Atlanta artists. With his wife’s encouragement and influence Thomas transitioned from jobs in sign painting and print shop management to fine art.

Arvid started painting still lifes and portraits, but then narrowed down his subjects to create a series of paintings concentrating on only red-colored cultural icons, such as Coca-Cola cans, Campbell’s Soup cans, Converse sneakers, and red wine. The most popular painting in the series was the wine piece so he focused his talents on painting more red wineglasses and bottles.

Thomas photographs a customized still life for each oil painting. Then he loosely sketches the composition onto a canvas and then the painting process begins. Thomas paints in oils on canvas because of the richness of the colors, especially when it comes down to trying to capture subtleties. He puts time into the details and focuses on capturing every element of the wine's reflection. “With my paintings, there's never one complete subject; everything is interrupted. I'm showing fragments of things, and your mind takes over and creates the rest of the image: who's sitting there, how come there's only two glasses and one's half empty and one's half full? What I love most is that there are so many different materials to work with: the wood crate, chrome or metal corkscrews, various textures of glass, the paper label, the liquid itself. I feel like it's an inexhaustible subject matter because there's always a new bottle of wine.”

Thomas’ work is showcased in galleries across the country and has been seen in numerous publications, including a spread in Wine Spectator Magazine. His paintings are found in many prominent collections, and they are a particular favorite amongst wineries and vineyard owners.