Tom Talbot (b. 1936)
Tom Talbot, a fourth generation Nebraskan, was born in November of 1936
at Broken Bow, Nebraska, on the eastern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.
Formulative years were spent in this area which his forebearers had helped
to settle in the late 1870's and 1880's. A varied family background merged
practicality with sensitivity and stability with a love of adventure. Family
travel as a child opened doors to other worlds and fostered curiosity.
Talbot was twelve when his first set of oils was ordered from a mail order
house and with no instruction he sought to use those tools of expression.
Formal training began the following year with a short summer session at
the University of Nebraska. Inspired by Manfred Keiler, German artist with
European academic training, Talbot returned for four summers to study with
Keiler. After graduation from Broken Bow High School and short time at the
University of Nebraska, Talbot attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago
and graduated in 1958.
Several years were spent as a commercial artist in Chicago; Lincoln, Nebraska;
and Denver, Colorado; with experience in publishing house and newspaper
art and advertising agencies. Disillusioned with this life, Talbot turned
to painting as a profession in 1963 and has, since then, happily set about
the business of portraying his world of places and people.
Upon his return to the Nebraska Sandhills, he realize the need for instruction
of those who struggled for knowledge of the tools of visual art. Since 1963
he has intermittently taught art throughout the west central area of Nebraska
to several hundred people in more than a dozen communities and was founder
of the Autumn Art Workshop in Nebraska's National Forest at Halsey.
Talbot and his wife, Ginger, travel extensively and his style of painting
varies to some degree with the subject portrayed and the emotion expressed.
Evidence of his travel to all parts of the United States, Europe, and Mexico
is often seen in his work.
Talbot has been represented by galleries in Lubbock, Texas; San Francisco,
California; Denver, Colorado; Ogunquit, Maine; and his work is in many private
collections throughout the United States and several foreign countries.
His murals are to be seen in banks, hospitals, hotels in Nebraska.
