Thomas Kinkade Art Scandal Continues to Unfold

I recently saw this on the Huffpost. I have been active in the Los Gatos Patch discussing why the Kinkade estate would need a restraining order to protect the “Thomas Kinkade Studios’ proprietary painting techniques”. I smelled a skunk at the time and have always felt that Kinkade’s work had that painting factory look to them.

HuffPost Arts

Our Favorite Reader Reactions To Thomas Kinkade’s Life And Work

Posted: 05/11/2012 1:35 pm Updated: 05/11/2012 1:35 pm

Edward Goodwin: My mother-in-law was on a business trip to South Korea about 15 years ago, she was invited to join a group of Americans staying in the same hotel to visit the “Thomas Kinkade factory.” That’s what it is called. She knew who he was, of course. She went along thinking that it was a building he had been commissioned to decorate, or something of that nature. It wasn’t. It is the factory that produces Thomas Kinkade art. Mr Kinkade would create a template very much like a paint-by numbers set. Each color or mixture of colors would have an alpha-numeric code to prevent translation mix-ups. These codes would be printed on the template. The template would be printed on specially treated canvas and would roll down an assembly line. Young ladies, hired for their ability to paint lightly, yet rapidly, would sit along the conveyor belt. One woman did only clouds, another, only bushes, another, only tree trunks, another, brightly lit windows, and so on until the finished painting reached the end of the conveyor belt. Mr Kinkade never met the young women who actually painted his paintings. They were paid $45.00 dollars a day for a 14 hour day for paintings that Mr Kinkade would sell for ten grand. Why were they worth that much? Because Mr Kinkade “painted” his signature on to them when they arrived in America. Nice work…if you can get it.

So Kinkade was selling painting done by others in an assembly line for over 15 years and as his own originals for over $10,000 each. I foresee a huge lawsuit against the Kinkade estate for misrepresentation of product and hopefully criminal charges against corporate members who knew what was going on.

It would appear that the Thomas Kincade factory is still painting after he is gone. You can buy original Kinkade paintings, without the $10,000 signature, below for as little as $5.

http://artforestpainting.en.alibaba.com/search/product?IndexArea=product_en&SearchText=thomas%20kinkade%20oil%20painting

I cannot believe that the Kinkade Company would have allowed this to go on unless they were in fact using these very paintings to defraud customers and charge upwards of $10k for these copies. Otherwise they would have screamed bloody murder to protect “Thomas Kinkade Studios’ proprietary painting techniques”. Their silence in this matter says it all, GUILTY!!

More and more evidence is mounting to support the claims that Kinkade and his companies sold mass produced oil paintings made in South Korea and/or China and sold them as Kindake originals. This is criminal activity and all parties involved could face substantial prison time if brought to trial. It is clearly time for the California State Attorney General’s Office to look into this massive art fraud perpetrated by Windermere Holdings LLC and Pacific Metro LLC, also known as The Thomas Kinkade Company.