Thomas Blackshear II

The Artwork of Thomas Blackshear II

Born in Waco, Texas in November of 1955, Thomas Blackshear II is an African-American illustrator, painter and sculptor. His work as an illustrator and painter is known for its dramatic use of light and inspirational mood. Blackshear’s oeuvre contains work that draws on Black Heritage, Christian, Native American, and Western themes.

Born to U.S. Air Force pilot Thomas Richman Blackshear and his wife, Thomas Blackshear II spent his early years primarily in Atlanta, Georgia. An artist from his childhood, he was awarded a scholarship from the Art Institute of Chicago. After one year of study at the Chicago Institute, Blackshear transferred to Chicago’s American Academy of Art from which he graduated with a B.F.A. in 1977. 

Blackshear found employment with the Hallmark Card Company in Kansas City, Missouri where he apprenticed under illustrator Mark English, one of the country’s leading illustrators for publications. Blackshear worked briefly as head illustrator for Kansas City’s Godbold/Richter Studio before launching a freelance artist career in 1982. His early work included more than one hundred-forty illustrations for LucasFilms, Anheuser-Busch, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Company, The National Geographic, and the Milton Bradley Company, among others. 

Through a connection with writer and illustrator Jerry Pinkney in the early 1900s, Thomas Blackshear began work for the United States Postal Service on a series of stamp portraits for its Black Heritage series  His work for this series included five stamps honoring such notables as Chicago-area’s first non-native settler Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (1987), union and civil rights activist Asa Philip Randolph (1989), and journalist and educator Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1990). Blackshear also completed ten illustrations for the Postal Service’s 1995 Jazz Music series that included, among others, stamps honoring Jelly Roll Morton, Coleman Hawkins, and John Coltrane. 

Blackshear illustrated the Postal Service’s 1990 Golden Era Movie series and its 1997 Classic Movie Monster series. The stamps for the Golden Era series were illustrated as miniature movie posters for such features as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Stagecoach”. For the Classic Movie Monster series, Blackshear created five portrait illustration of the actors in their makeup: Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney as Phantom of the Opera, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, and Boris Karloff as the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster. He also illustrated a 1999 stamp for James Cagney,  a 2004 stamp for James Baldwin, and a 2010 stamp honoring Mother Teresa.

Well known and highly respected in the religious art world, Thomas Blackshear’s colorful paintings of Christ and other Biblical figures are located in numerous churches throughout the country. In the mid-1990s, he founded the “Ebony Visions” project, a large and varied collection of images and sculptural figurines, both religious and historic, of African American culture. “Ebony Visions” has been rated the number one black-figurine collectible group in the United States for twenty years.

Blackshear has lectured and conducted workshops in Germany and Sweden and also taught at the San Francisco Academy of Art College. Among his many recognitions are the 1988 Gold Medal of the National Society of Illustrators, two Silver Awards in the 1989 San Francisco Society of Illustrators Show, and two Gold Awards in the 1990 Illustrators West Show. In 2006, Blackshear had a solo exhibition through the Vatican in Rome; his painting of Pope John Paul II was unveiled for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Pope John Paul II Foundation.  

Thomas Blackstone II was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2020. He is represented by Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Trailside Galleries located in Jackson, Wyoming and Scottsdale ,Arizona.

Second Insert Image: Thomas Blackshear, “Background Cactus”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, 58.4 x 50.8 cm, Inquire

Third Insert Image: Thomas Blackshear II, “Old MacDonald”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, Private Collection

Bottom Insert Image: Thomas Blackshear, “Last Drop Out of His Stetson”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, Inquire