Big Sky Journal (Brian Baise)
Throughout The Painting Season, Daly contributes short, loosely ordered essays on his work and his life, and they complement the art nicely. He devotes one to each of the seasons, and the others to favorite places. He also provides captions for the paintings, which is a welcome feature. In reading through the book, we learn Daly spends as much time outside as he does in his studio, which isn't surprising. It's obvious these paintings don't come from looking through a window.
Given that Big Sky Journal is a western magazine, we thought twice about reviewing The Painting Season, with its principle settings in the Northeast. And then we asked, What would our readers think? Unanimously, we agreed they would love it.
Inside Flap copy
Thomas Aquinas Daly paints what he knows, and the result is a collection of poetic landscape and still life paintings that embody a unique fidelity to the enduring themes of land and nature. With a sportsmans reasons to roam the landscape, he translates his sensitive perceptions into luminous, expressive watercolors and oil paintings that have successfully bridged the gap between sporting and fine art. Combining strong graphic design with a sophisticated sense of color and shape, he has drawn an appreciative audience far beyond the realm of outdoor art. Yet, his personal relationship with the natural world strikes an emotional chord familiar to sportsmen and naturalists as well, earning him a position at the top of the sporting art genre. His work is about the land - quiet, confident meditations upon the spirit of a place without the need for assertiveness, wrote one critic. As a virtuoso of the watercolor medium, perhaps Dalys preeminent skill is in describing! ! the myriad nuances of light and atmosphere that are apparent only to one intimately attuned to the vagaries of his environment.
Educated as a graphic artist at the University of Buffalo, Thomas Aquinas Daly spent 23 years working in the commercial printing business before leaving it in 1981 to devote his full attention to painting. Since then, his work has been displayed in numerous solo exhibitions at galleries, museums and universities throughout the country. President Gerald R. Ford recognized Dalys talent by awarding him Grand Central Art Gallerys Gold Medal at the opening of his 1987 show in New York. In addition to his first book, Painting Natures Quiet Places (Watson-Guptill,1985), Dalys paintings have appeared in several other publications, among them: The Ultimate Fishing Book, The Sweet of the Year, The Sporting Life, and The Art of Shooting Flying. Additionally his work has been featured in periodicals such as Grays Sporting Journal, Arts Magazine, American Artist, Sports Afield, Sporting Classics, Wildlife Art News, Southwest Art, and Watercolor.
