Sully is a famous name in New Orleans art and architecture circles. Hoping to revive the memory of his ancestors and to follow their lead, Thomas Sully presents himself as a studio artist, fond of the romantic, tonalist landscape, creating soulful, mysterious images which evoke rather than replicate the lowlands of Louisiana.
Sully attended San Francisco Art Institute and California Institute of the Arts. Explaining his technique, he says, Though I make watercolor studies in the field, I take liberties with the forms and rearrange compositions back in the studio to suit my poetic needs…I start with an an underpainting in fairly neutral tones and then alternate layers of body painting with glazing and scumbling, over and over until I develop depth and luminosity.
Currently living in Asheville, North Carolina, Sully hopes to reacquaint himself through his art with New Orleans and the countryside.
