Biography of Canadian Artist Thomas Hamilton 

 

1951 – 2011

 

 

Thomas Hamilton was born July 2nd, 1951 in Queens, New York.  He was adopted at the age of 6 months by a Canadian couple who were residing in New York. This gave Tom dual Canadian/ American citizenship. At the age of 10, he and his family moved to Alberta, Canada, where they settled in Tomahawk, a town west of Edmonton.

 

Tom graduated from high school in 1968, and later attended the Fine Arts program at the Alberta College of Art, in Calgary. He graduated from the program in 1974 and moved to Medicine Hat to take up work as a ranch foreman. It was during this time that Tom taught art for 2 years at Medicine Hat College.

 

Eventually, Tom began doing some long-haul trucking to help support his passion for creating art. It was during a trip to Chilliwack, B.C. that Tom met Sharon Price with whom he fell in love and married in October of 1989. With this union, came two wonderful stepchildren, Lisa and Jason.

 

Throughout his adult life, Tom maintained art studios wherever he lived, including Medicine Hat, Cochrane, and Calgary, Alberta. He was honoured to be selected as an ‘artist in residence’ through an affiliation with the Tate Gallery, in both London, England (1996) and Beijing, China (1997).

 

In 2010, Tom was diagnosed with brain cancer. Despite this terrible set-back, he continued to energetically create his art. Following surgery to try to arrest the cancer, he found that his colour palette had changed, and he began to use more oranges and yellows in his paintings. Tom was committed to his work right up to his untimely death, in February 2011, at the age of 60.

 

Patrons of Thomas Hamilton’s art include Esso Canada, Gulf Canada, and the Calgary Children’s Hospital.

 

 

 

TOM HAMILTON"S VINTAGE ART WORK IS FEATURED AND OFFERED FOR SALE IN THE ART SECTION OF THE MID-CENTURY REHAB MENU BAR!