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Tom Everhart was born in 1952 in Washington, D.C. He began his under graduate studies at the Yale University of Art and Architecture in 1970. In 1972 he participated in an independent study program under Earl Hoffman at St. Mary's College. He returned to the Yale in 1974 where he completed his graduate work in 1976, followed by post-graduate studies at the Musee de l'Orangerie, in Paris. In 1980, Everhart was introduced to cartoonist Charles M. Schulz at Schulz's studios in Santa Rosa, California. A few weeks prior to their meeting, Everhart, having absolutely no education in cartooning, found himself involved in a freelance project that required him to draw and present Peanuts renderings to Schulz's studios. He discovered that, blown up larger than life, Schulz's pen strokes translated into painterly brush strokes that closely related to his own form of expression. It was directly at this time that Everhart confirmed his obsession with Schulz's line art style and their ongoing relationship of friendship and education of his line style. A few years later, while still painting full-time on his previous body of work in his studio, Everhart began drawing special projects for Schulz and United Media, both in New York and Tokyo. These authentic Schulz-style drawings included covers and interiors of magazines, art for the White House, and the majority of the Met Life campaign. He was now considered to be the only fine artist authorized and educated by Schulz to draw the actual Schulz line. The paintings using Charles Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts, as subject matter came to this artist in Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Everhart was undergoing several operations for stage 4 colon / liver cancer in the summer of 1988. Everhart recalls lying in a hospital bed surrounded by enough flowers to open a florist shop, piles of art books and a stack of Peanuts comic strips sent to him by Schulz. The light streaming in from the window almost projected the new images of his future Schulz inspired paintings on the wall. All the images in Everhart's work are in some respect derived from Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. In January 1990 Everhart's Schulz related work went on to show at the Louvre in Paris and subsequently in Los Angeles at the L.A. County Museum of Natural History, Montreal at the Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan at the Suntory Museum of Art, Osaka, Rome, Venice, Milan, Minneapolis, Baltimore, New York, Houston, Chicago, Las Vegas, and in Santa Rosa California at the Charles M. Schulz Museum. In 1991, Charles Schulz and United Media drafted a legal agreement to allow Tom Everhart to use subject matter from Schulz's Peanuts strip in his art for "the term of his life". After Charles Schulz passed away in February of 2000 it left Everhart with a deep sense of loss as well as an even stronger desire to communicate the incredible gift bestowed on him by Schulz. The Charles M Schulz Museum opened in 2002, and the following year Everhart had the honor of presenting his works in a solo exhibition titled Under The Influence. He would also be included in the Museum's 2011, Pop'd From The Panel exhibition along with Warhol and Lichtenstein. Everhart continues to lecture around the world on the artwork of Charles M Schulz and to communicate the unique collaborative relationship they shared, as a cartoonist and a painter. To this he has dedicated his life. After living in San Francisco, Paris, New York, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and London, in 1997 Everhart moved to Venice California where he now lives with Jennifer, his wife and director of their studio. Today, Everhart is the only fine artist educated by Schulz and legally authorized by both Charles Schulz and Iconix to use subject matter from Schulz's Peanuts strip to create fine art. |