About the Artist
Nicholas Thorp is a third-generation painter born in Banner Elk, NC in 1998. Growing up in a family of artists—spanning mediums from filmography to painting to floral design—he was surrounded by creativity from an early age. His father introduced him to oil painting when he was in eighth grade.
While studying Classics and the Great Books in college, Nicholas set visual art aside. However, during his junior year, his mother mailed him his high school oil painting set. Inspired, he began teaching himself through weekly portrait sittings with friends and classmates.
After graduating, Nicholas apprenticed for two years under portraitist Louis Carr and figurative painter Alex Venezia. During this time, he honed his skills in the academic approach to drawing and painting and gained valuable insights from the many guest artists who taught workshops at their studio. While apprenticing, he also worked as a 5th-grade teacher, where he met his wife, Sivana, a 1st-grade teacher.
Today, Nicholas takes portrait commissions and experiments with blending the liveliness of Impressionism with the solidity of academic painting. His work is deeply inspired by the Russian realists and late 19th-century English painters such as Waterhouse and Solomon. He lives in Jefferson, NC, with his wife and two daughters. In his free time, he enjoys reading Ancient Greek, fixing cars, and directing his church choir.
