Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Reel People: Jared Padalecki is Thomas Kinkade

The film is the Christmas Cottage directed by Michael Camus. The film tells the story of the commerical artists' early days when he was motivated to begin a career in painting.

Thomas Kinkade was born in 1958 in Sacramento, California. He attended college at UC Berkley and the Art Center of College and design in Pasadena, California. It has been said that Kinkade was inspired to paint after he found out his mother Maryanne Kinkade was potentially going to loose their family home, at which point he painted the Christmas cottage (right). Kinkade experience great success in the 1980s illustrating with James Gurney The Artists Guide to Sketching. These artists also created the background work for the 1983 animated film Fire and Ice.

Thomas Kinkade since has become the most collected living artists. Kinkade and friend Kenneth Raasch started Media Arts Group, where Kinkade was marketed as the "Painter of Light." Largely embraced by embraced by evangelical Christians, Kinkade uses an impressionistic style, often painting cottages and church scenes in pastel colors with great luminosity. Kinkade has sold many paintings through his website, home-shopping channels, and in mall stores. Kinkade reportedly made $53 million between 1997 and 2005.

In the film The Christmas Cottage, Peter O'Toole will be in this film as Glen Weissler, one of Kinkade's mentors. And who is Jared Padalecki? He is most known for his role on the TV shows Gilmore Girls and Supernatural, and for a role in the film House of Wax. Marcia Gay Harden is also rumored to be in this film.

Could his portrayl of a real person could earn Padalecki some critical awards attention this year for his portrayal of this Real (Reel) Person. (Probably not, but I couldn't help but add it to the series)

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gawd! My wife is actually a fan of Jared. Now I can't wait for the special edition release of the DVD with an embellished print of Jared sipping hot cocoa in the winter house.

Will said...

Hmm...
[not sure how to react here]

Grete said...

Two things...
(1) How interesting that Thomas Kinkade went to the Art school in Pasadena! That's a couple blocks away from where we live...

(2) How bizarre to see Jared Padalecki in anything other than a WB (now CW) show - I can't get past him dating Rory or running from gross ghosts...

Paula said...

Since I find Kinkade's paintings to be about as exciting as staring at static on the TV for an hour, I think I'll be giving this film a miss.

crackers and cheese said...

I sent this link to my cousin, who describes Thomas Kinkade paintings as "cliche vomiting pastel colors," and she got a kick out it.

Anonymous said...

no no no...besides being boring Thomas Kincade is not old enough for a life story yet. He is the same age as my parents. I want you to be dead or very old when I hear your life story. The only except is if you are really interesting (aka "Catch Me if You Can"). For the record: painting cottages doesn't equally interesting!

Anonymous said...

When I saw my first Kinkade, I was struck by his use of light.....how he manipulated it to draw the eye in.....I believe it was a lighthouse that I like so well....

but then came the mass marketing and production: home shopping network; greeting cards; needlepoint kits; mall stores......

and somehow his work, well , it lost it's uniqueness to me....and I find myself dismissing it as just another type of 'lobby' art......a shame really.......

Kimberly Ann said...

kinkade is the muzak of art.

jasdye said...

calling kincaid an artist is an insult to the field of art. you should at least put quotation marks around such uses, rc.

Mary said...

Kinkade is probably financing the film. There was a 60-minutes piece on him that was appalling. His "originals" that people pay $$$ for are mass produced in a factory and then one or two daubs of paint from his brush on a window-sill in the painting or on a lamp-post...and he has "painted" it. Now he's got f***ing romance novels out, and collectible plates, and figurines. Puke.

Anonymous said...

I am really not into Kinkade's art. I am, however, really into Jared Padalecki. He is fantastic on Supernatural, and that show deserves far more attention than it gets. So I am going to have to go see this darn movie. I hope the script is stellar, because the premise sounds boring as hell. Jared, what were you thinking????

Anonymous said...

Wow - finally Jared gets cast in a film with a main role!
Not sure about the actual plotline, but Padalecki does have a way of lending authenticity to cookie-cutter characters; Dean Forrester was just the normal 'boy-next-door' but something in his charisma made him very interesting. And hey - couldn't the life story of a sell-out be actually pretty interesting?

yeah-yeah said...

I am finishing up the stock of Thomas Kinkade's mousepads. Anyone?