September 2024 Artist of the Month: Eddie Thiel

Eddie grew up in Madison County Virginia where his mom was always drawing, and his dad was a car guy. His high school art teacher inspired him to go to college for art, and he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. While there, he took one painting class, but didn't really like it, although he learned a great deal about design and technique in college. 

Eddie started painting seriously about 20 years ago. From the beginning, he wrote down the hours he worked on a painting. The saying goes that it takes 10,000 hours to be good at anything, and Eddie once took 307 hours and 10 months to complete one painting. Because of this, he learned techniques to work a little faster.

Initially, he started out painting still life, then portraits, then western scenes, and now he's focused on painting cars because they are everyday objects to which everyone can relate. His father was the one that taught him about cars and now painting them forms a connection to him. His mom is an artist, who inspires him daily.