Artist Brad Thompson displays one of his most famous paintings, an oil-based painting of the plantation Oak Alley, above his fireplace in his Gallery in Slidell.

By Emily Garvin

St. Tammany News

The Brad Thompson Gallery has been a staple in the New Orleans area for years, and now he has opened his first gallery on the Northshore in Slidell.

Thompson started painting at a young age. In the summer when he was 20 years old, Thompson would walk around in the Metairie neighborhood where he grew up, knocking on his neighbors' doors to see if they wanted a picture drawn of their house. The answer was always "yes."

That summer, Thompson painted 22 pictures, 11 of them were of his neighborhood houses.

"Back then, Metairie wasn't the bustling city that it is today. It was spread out and there wasn't much to the city, it was considered the country," said Thompson.

Thompson has had a gallery in the Riverwalk in New Orleans for five years. But when Hurricane Katrina hit, it destroyed his business and his home in Slidell.

After the storm, all of his employees all moved out of the city and never returned, so Thompson had to shut down the business completely for a year.

"I had no place to put the business, I had no place to do the framing or printing, he said. "So, we had to find a new location first. And this place became available after the storm."

The new Brad Thompson Gallery off Fremaux Avenue was formerly a hair salon called "Impression by Connie," whose owner decided to sell the building.

"It took me almost six months to fix up the building," Thompson said. "There wasn't too much damage done to the building because it was built up, but the entire place had to be repainted due to neglect through the years.

"It was difficult to find a good contactor to do the work and my own home was severely damaged so it was hard fixing up both places."

But things slowly started taking shape, and before long Thompson was able to open up the gallery.

"It was a little scary after we lost the Riverwalk gallery. We didn't know how we were going to fund another gallery," said Thompson. "But I had a Web site where people could visit and buy my work, and that kept us afloat for that year hiatus."

Thompson has become famous through his paintings of famous Louisiana plantations, such as like Oak Alley and Nottoway.

He painted the pictures with an oil-based paint, and his attention to detail is what makes his painting pop off the canvas.

"My attention to light and shadows while painting is attributed to my years of painting houses for people," he said.

If an onlooker looks closely at several of Thompson's paintings, a peacock can be seen as part of the landscape. That's because one of Thompson's friends owns a peacock named Bernie, and he has made several appearances in Thompson's artwork. "I painted Bernie several times through the years and he sort of became a fixture in some of my work," Thompson said.

Thompson's artwork maybe distinctly Louisiana, but people all over the world have fallen in love with his New Orleans panache. A friend of Thompson's was at a minister's convention in Rome, Italy when he walked into a deli and there on the wall was one of Thompson's jazz pieces.

"He told me he couldn't wait to get to a phone to call me and tell me," Thompson said.

The future Thompson has made for himself and the gallery is bright. His Slidell location is his only gallery location right now, but he hopes to re-open his gallery at the Riverwalk.

"That is where I spent the best years of my life," said Thompson. "I had the chance to sell my art to people from all over the world from there, so I am looking forward to returning there."

Thompson also hopes to franchise his business out in the future and return to traveling and seeing the country that he has missed since a boy. Opening up franchises would help free up his time to travel and to do road shows to help introduce his work to more people across the country.

He has a wide variety of pictures from wildlife, plantations, still life and collaborations of many images that are distinctly New Orleans into a singular representation for posters.

Anyone can find a picture to their liking with prices ranging from $10 for simple small copy prints upwards to $3,000 depending on what the picture is printed on and the size of the picture.

Since the storm Thompson's view of what he wants to paint has changed.

"After the storm, Katrina changed me," he said. "I saw so many beautiful things that meant so much to people lost in the storm."

So now he has decided to bring these lost heirlooms back to life by painting such items as antique lamps and sculptures.

"I come to try and draw the positive things in life, and I love beautiful things and that is what I am after," he said. "I am not interested in drawing the suffering of people. I like to brighten people's day and cheer them up and give them something positive to think about."

Thompson's paintings do just that. Whether it is a painting on someone's mantel in New Orleans or a backdrop in a deli in Rome, Thompson's artwork is one of life, love and hope.

Source: http://www.thesttammanynews.com/articles/2007/01/15/northshore_life/northshorelife03.txt