"Painting outdoors on-location, the sun and wind on my face. I feel close to a higher power."

    For Tom DeWalt a love of nature began early in life when he started surfing. The sun, wind and waves instilled in him a great appreciation for the outdoors.
    He studied studio art and art history at UCSB and Santa Barbara City College. He studied life drawing and plein air painting at UCSB's College of Creative Studies. Tom's background includes working in the special effects industry where he created matte paintings for feature films, such as StarTrek Insurrection, An American Werewolf in Paris, Spawn and others.  He is also an accomplished graphic artist and illustrator. His illustrations can be seen the the Santa Barbara News-Press and his "Sketchbook" series appears each Friday in the Valley Living publication.
    A move in 1974 to the Hollister Ranch was the catalyst for painting outdoors. Tom would spend the next 28 years painting the ranch's coastline. Those years had a profound effect on Tom as a painter and his work was collected by  many of the ranch owners, including the Hollister family.
   Tom is an award winning artist based in Santa Barbara. His studio/gallery is open by appointment. Please email for appointment schedule.

 

 

TOM  DE WALT  •  Contemporary Realist Painter

Tom's paintings convey the spendor of California and the West