Color & Light featuring Michelle Tholen
District Wine Bar, 216 Townsend, SF
July 11 – October 2, 2011
Opening Reception, July 13th, 6-8pm
Color and Light at District, San Francisco
Art, Jazz & Wine benefiting Leukemia & Lymphoma at Martin Lawrence Gallery
The 2012 Leukemia & Lymphoma Man of the Year Candidate
Works donated by Michelle Tholen, Jason Martineau, Tim Williamson & Kristin Castelli
April 18th, 2012, 6-9pm
Martin Lawrence Galleries, 366 Geary Street, San Francisco, California
Crown Nine features Michelle Tholen
“Featured tomorrow at our First Friday opening reception is San Francisco based fine artist, Michelle Tholen. The artist draws inspiration from the natural landscapes of Northern California—we connected with her charcoal works, a collection of scenes that are dreamy and stark. She brings out the ethereal and evokes a sense of place, real or imagined, playing with contrast and emotion without fussing or overworking her pieces. ” Crown Nine
One of 10 finalists for the SF Weekly Mastermind Grant
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau waxes eloquent about the lure of nature, including the inspiration he got from light, writing of a moment when the woods “were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead, if they had been slumbering in their graves, as some suppose. There needs no stronger proof of immortality. All things must live in such a light.” It’s that sort of natural light that Michelle Tholen captures in her paintings, a light that inspires even as it is presented without sentiment. In the wrong artistic hands, sunsets and waning moments of daylight can become cliché and mawkish. (See the work ofThomas Kinkade. Or try not to.) Tholen’s landscapes are timeless riffs that almost abstract the horizon — a mix between reflection and refraction.
Her work speaks to the deep connection between sky and physical earth, as in Smooth River, where a winding waterway is bathed in the falling sun that peeks from above. The division of sky and ground give Tholen’s landscape paintings an ethereal feeling and a balanced symmetry. Surprisingly, Tholen is self-taught. A San Francisco resident, she graduated with a degree in accounting in 1997 and worked as an accountant for three years before embracing painting. She found a niche in landscapes one day in 2002, after she finished a climb at Samuel P. Taylor Park in West Marin, peered at the sky, and was taken by the sheen it made on nearby water. Before that day, Tholen said she was feeling “lost” in her life. Her first landscape painting was a chance to recreate “a moment I fell in love with.” The subsequent paintings seem to capture that same momentous feeling.
By Jonathan Curiel Wednesday, Feb 8 2012
John McEvoy Fine Art: First Thursday Art Show & Reception
John McEvoy Fine Art is hosting their monthly First Thursday Art Show and Reception! They will be exhibiting the work of Michelle Tholen as well as their collection of gallery artists. Michelle Tholen is a rising young artist who paints lush landscapes, rivers and deltas throughout Northern California. Her paintings are a dreamy interplay of light, water, fog and sky.
February 2, 2012
3:00 – 7:00 PM
John McEvoy Fine Art
SFDC Showplace #152
Color and Form Installation
Landscapes at McEvoy Fine Art
Acclaimed San Francisco artist Michelle Tholen is a master at creating lush tonal views of Northern California filtered through soft light now showing for a limited time at McEvoy Fine Art.
How Michelle Tholen Found Her Aha Moment
“When I learned that she was an accountant before becoming an artist, I was blown away.
I can only imagine what guts it took on her part and the self-awareness that she had to follow what fulfilled her.
Her showings absolutely pack a place. Michelle has an incredible following and I can see why. Her art is absolutely stunning.”
Suzannah Scully, 2011
“A Decade”, celebrating Michelle Tholen
Ten years of fine art for a privately held exhibit.
May 23, 2010, 6-8pm
Crown Nine in coordination with Oakland Art Murmur features Michelle Tholen
Interview with Crown Nine, “The artist draws inspiration from the natural landscapes of Northern California-we connected with her charcoal works, a collection of scenes that are dreamy and stark. She brings out the ethereal and evokes a sense of place, real or imagined, playing with contrast and emotion without fussing or overworking her pieces. “
Crown Nine in coordination with Oakland Art Murmur features Michelle Tholen, August 1 – August 31, 2012