Working from a studio in a renovated warehouse outside Eugene, Oregon, Tom Browning has created numerous still lifes, figure and western genre works. He showed art talent at an early age and took art training at the University of Oregon.

His inspirational teacher was figure painter, Allan Haemer, and a visit to the C.M. Russell Museum inspired an interest in western art.

At age twenty-three, he became a full-time artist.

He has written a book: Timeless Techniques for Better Oil Painting, and founded a publishing company, noted for a line of cards of his illustrations called "Santa's Time Off."

Source:
Art of the West magazine

2009 was a big year for Tom. In January the mural The Adoration of the Christ Child for St. Mary's in Boise, Idaho was installed. In June he was awarded the prestigious Prix de West Award at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for Dawn of a New Day. In October he was elected into the Cowboy Artists Of America (CAA).

Born in Ontario, Oregon in 1949, Tom Browning has been painting professionally since 1972. Starting out with wildlife as a choice of subject matter, Tom worked primarily in black and white using a medium known as scratchboard. This gave his work an appearance of laborious detail, however, his technique permitted him to become quite prolific and at the same time learn the most important concept of values. Learning to properly see values and creating such a convincing sense of light have been instrumental to Browning's success.

Now working primarily in oils, Tom's subject matter takes in a wide scope that knows no boundaries. Still life and figures, however, make up the majority of his work, and are always the subjects in his workshops that he teaches around the country each year. And of course teaching how to see values is Tom's main focus during these seminars. In 1994 Tom wrote an instructional book for Northlight entitled Timeless Techniques for Better Oil Paintings which was acclaimed by many schools and painting students as one of the best ever out on the market.

Since becoming a member of the Northwest Rendezvous Group in 1986, Browning has been a four time recipient of judges' merit awards, and in 1994 received an Award of Excellence from the NWR Group. Tom is a member of the Portrait Painters Society of America, which chose him as a finalist in a 2000 competition in New York City, and has been a guest artist at the National Academy of Western Art and the Plein Air Painters of America. He currently shows with Wilcox Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming, and Lahaina Galleries in Bend, Oregon. He also participates in the Prix de West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian & Western Art in Indianapolis. His work can also be seen in Settler?s West Gallery in Tuscon, Arizona.

For twenty-two years Tom and his wife Joyce owned and operated a publishing business of the Tom Browning Collection a decorator print and greeting card business that carved a permanent niche in the gift market. Tom's unique Santa designs along with his painting style earned him the reputation in the industry as the premiere Santa painter in the country. In 1997 a successful children?s book, Santa's Time Off was published using Tom's Santas as the illustrations. Over the years these wonderful images of Santa have found their way onto numerous manufactured products, and for more than fifteen years have been among the top selling designs in clothtique figurines by Possible Dreams.

Publications:
Northlight / Browning/Timeless Techniques for Better Oil Paintings/ 1994
Northlight / Metzger / Artists' Guide to Materials and Techniques 1996
Northlight / Kipp / The Best of Flower Painting / 1997
Putnam / Browning, Maynard / Santa's Time Off / 1997
Northlight / Wolf / The Best of Portrait Painting / 1998
Northlight/ Albert/2003
Harper Collins / Presley/Love Me Tender 2003

Periodical Publications:
Art of the West March/April 1989
Southwest Art December 1990
Focus Santa Fe Nov/Dec 1992
US Art Dec 1992
Informart Jan/Feb 1993
Rainbow Spring 1994
The Santa Fean Magazine August 1994
Art of the West Nov/Dec 1994
US Art Dec 1996
Art of the West January/February 2004
Skywest Magazine Nov/Dec 2006