Ansgard Thomson

I was born in 1923 in Silesia, Germany. The part of Germany is Polish today. I grew up surrounded by art. My father painted in watercolors and my uncle was a well-known Silesian painter in oils, my brothers and sisters were also exploring art in one form or another, we were 7 children. I claim that my early influences gave me a lifelong interest in art. My secret desire to enter an art school was not practical at that time (wartime) I entered nursing instead. After losing everything at the end of the war, the attachment to art became very strong (when everything lost its values the artists spoke an appealing language).I socially entered the art circles in Germany and later in Paris, where I worked for 10 years. I immigrated to Canada in 1959. I married in 1970 Walter F.Thomson an Agrologist after working in Edmonton for 11 years.

We moved to the farm in Fort Assiniboine in 1972.While working as a coordinator for the Fort Assiniboine Museum and Recreational Planning I came in contact with local art teacher Margaret Nadeau .As a founding member of a local art club I joined the provincial A.C.A.C.A (Alberta Community Arts Club Association) .I explored pen and ink, acrylics, watercolors, oils, mixed media and colored pencil and later computer art. My first interest was historical illustration, due to my work for the museum.

Art Education: My high school art courses in Germany made me aware of my interest in the arts and helped me to understand my own abilities. Formal instruction in arts I received by courses taken by the further education courses prepared by instructors of the Extension Department of the University of Alberta over a long period of time between 1980 - 1993 last course taken with many different well known Alberta artists.

As a traditional painter in traditional media I started using the computer since 1993. Attracted by the new media and the many programs one could find on the Internet to explore the differences as well as the similarities to the natural way of making art .My choices of programs were related to my aim to produce 2D works in the new media without scanning any of my traditional paintings.

In 1997 I designed my first home page and ventured on the Internet. I had very many invitations to show my computer art in virtual galleries around the globe. I joined the artist den in New Mexico and had over 5000 hits to one of my traditional paintings. I also made my first friends sharing my interests to dedicate my goal and energy towards creating digital art. In Sept 1997 I added a Digital Camera "Mavica" from Sony to my tools. This has given me a great opportunity to get photographs faster into the computer to explore digital explorations of photographes. In November 1998 I added a Wacom Intuos pen to my tools and I no longer paint the traditional way with . All my work is done directly on the computer.

2000 After long search for producing archival prints .I am now able to print limited editions , on high quality archival papers in my own studio. I do accept also orders of larger prints but can print myself only up to 13"x19".

Ansgard Thomson's art on the Web

Ansgard Thomson's AutoGallery exhibit