The artist known for making colorful ordinary life paintings, Wayne Thiebaud, recently passed away at the age of 101.

His death was recently confirmed by Acquavella Galleries this Sunday, December 26. "It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of a truly remarkable man," they posted. "An American icon, Wayne led his life with passion and determination, inspired by his love for teaching, tennis, and above all, making art.

The gallery's statement continued, "Even at 101 years old, he still spent most days in the studio, driven by - as he described with his characteristic humility - 'this almost neurotic fixation of trying to learn to paint,'"


However, as of writing, no reports regarding his death's exact details were disclosed to the public.

Thiebaud's Beginnings

According to Deadline, Thiebaud was born in 1920, Mesa, Arizona. For as young as a high-schooler, the artist started in the animation department at Walt Disney Studios for three months. He, later on, moved to Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, where he further learned about sign painting and other commercial art skills.

In 1962, his career as a painter took off as he debuted at the Allan Stone Gallery in New York City. During those years, Thiebaud painted incredible works for which he is best known, depicting quintessentially American, everyday objects in bright colors, including cakes and pies, hot dogs and hamburgers, gumballs, and lollipops, and jackpot machines, as per his profile in the mentioned gallery.

Thiebaud graduated with his bachelor's from the California State University in Sacramento. While still taking his master's degree at the said school, he worked as an art professor for eight years at Sacramento Junior College before moving to the University of California Davis.

Continuing from his biography, in the early 2000s, Thiebaud continued his career for painting and focused on his series of "mountains, depicting dramatic close-up and cross-section views of fantastic, towering summits with luminous colors and rich textures."

And as the site would describe his works, "These works merge fiction and reality, drawing from the artist's memories of mountains he had seen in childhood. Experimenting with color, texture, light, and composition, he has repeatedly tackled the same subjects to challenge and explore the formal possibilities of painting."

May his soul rest in peace.