Born in 1974, in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Thor Downing has recently lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina to pursue art as a career. Having obtained an art scholarship at the age of eleven to the Felsted School, in Essex, UK, he went on to become an architect. He left art for approximately ten years (seven of which were devoted to the study of architecture) until late 2003 when he picked up the brushes again. After a master class of life painting with renowned artist Paul Benney (www.paulbenney.com) he found a new urge to paint.

Thor spends half his time now between the BVI and Harvard where he holds studios in both places. Currently, Thor seems to be bouncing down to the BVIs every two months due to his responsibilities with the architectural side of his life where he is a director of an architectural firm. He enjoys both the technical side of construction and artistic side of design in his job but hopes to be a full-time painter one day. "We are very busy down here in the BVIS. I get a majority of that work done while I am here and shall be concentrating on the arts when I am in Harvard. The traveling also keeps me from getting stale or too comfortable." Thor admits that he has great respect for any artist that has been able to devote themselves to their work and manages to be successful. "When I was working solely as an artist in Argentina, I found you must stay very disciplined with art. It is very easy to blame things on lack of inspiration or to over-think paintings."

Thor has participated in shows in the British Virgin Islands and New York and hopes to show his work in the near future in Boston (and Harvard.) His first major art showing was at the BVI House in London. He was also commissioned to paint a panel on the Fahie Hill mural, a wall that depicts images of BVI's past. Thor works mostly on commission and his work finds its way into private collections in the BVI, UK, New York, Argentina and Bermuda. "I did realize that I have to be careful with commissions; it can be a double-edged sword, at least with regard to the inspiration to produce certain paintings. For instance I will not accept any commissions based on a picture from a prospective client and being asked to reproduce it-- that is just boring and usually frustrating. Portraits are best when done in life with the person able to spend the time posing." He plans to look to commercial office collectors and start working more abstractly ,which he describes as a definite challenge but one that he loves.

Thor's work exhibits a feeling of strength, evoking strong emotions (pain in some, resignation in others and a feeling of hope in still others) as if he is telling a story about his subject or the scene. "I try not to force anything into a painting; I try to run off my internal emotions. So often the paintings may be an expression of my present state of mind. I often find that if I don't remember painting every step of a painting and work instinctively the outcome is far more powerful than if I concentrate on the technical side of the paintings. For me a successful painting is one that evokes an emotion in the viewer, whether it be a case if they love it or hate it as long as there is an emotional response."

When asked how he chooses his subjects, Thor explains, "Often I find subjects choosing me, on recent commissions, people have been asking for nautical subjects, but then leave me to decide on the style and perspective. I enjoy thinking in different perspectives and compositions that are not the traditionally accepted compositions. There is a great deal of trial and error, but the journey is fun."

As an artist, Thor says he works fast once he gets in the zone. "I don't like working small scale either. Music is essential to working and to (taking a stylistic phrase from Paul Benney) inference painting, painting just enough that the brain can fill in the gaps on details. With other large paintings, such as the Tortola sloop from a bird's-eye perspective, I find many people reading their own story in the people on the boat. I had my own vision of what they were about to do, but it is always fascinating to hear other peoples' take on the painting." His favorite artists? "Paul Benney who he is predominantly a portrait artist but his knowledge about the materials and techniques are amazing!..Van Gogh (not the part about lobbing off the ear and drinking white spirits), Da Vinci, and O'Keeffe for her unusual perspective rather than technical aspects."

We'll look forward to Thor's return to Harvard in the fall and wish him lots of creative inspiration in his next paintings. He writes that he is currently awaiting acceptance in the Copley Society of Boston. It looks like he's well on his way to fulfilling his dream. To contact him, send email to Tdowning1@mac.com or visit his website at www.thordowning.com.