Shorter College professor to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
 
Shorter College professor George Thomason will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rome Area Council for the Arts (RACA) on Sunday, Oct. 12.

Thomason embarked on his art career in 1994, when he picked up a brush and turned a clean, white canvas into a colorful work of art. After being in the design business for more than 20 years, Thomason said, painting just came naturally. “My mentor, Dale Kennington, encouraged me to start painting, and she actually advised me to not take lessons, and just draw from my experience in the design business,” Thomason said. “Dale told me, ‘all you have to do is teach your hand to do what your brain already knows how to do,’ and so I thought I’d try it.”

Working in oils only and creating mostly landscapes, Thomason enjoys working in his home studio, located just down the road from where he teaches English and serves as chairman of Shorter College’s Humanities Department.

As an artist, Thomason has been given the chance to display his works for the public many times over the years. Thomason had the distinction of being RACA’s premiere exhibit in 1994 with a one-man show titled “The Poetry of Paint,” and held a RACA show again in 1996 alongside Shorter alumna Barbara Brown Briley entitled “Two Views.”

Two other shows followed in 1998. The first was a one-man show at the RACA gallery called “Romantic Landscapes.” The second show, held at the Skellenger Gallery in Cedartown, was an expanded version of the first.

Additionally, he was selected as the feature artist for the American Cancer Society’s Hope Gala, and in 2002, he was asked to be the feature artist at RACA’s seventh annual Fanfare event. Most recently, Thomason held a show at Shorter’s Arnold Gallery, which featured his favorite paintings on loan from various collectors. His work has been highlighted in several other shows at galleries in Atlanta and Birmingham.

RACA Director Rebecca Koontz applauded Thomason’s devotion to the local art community. “The RACA board chose George not only because he is a painter and professor, but because of his involvement in design as well. He’s given a lifetime of support to the arts, and that’s what this award represents,” Koontz said. “His artwork resembles an impressionistic style. Impressionists painted from the heart, and that to me is the way he paints -- from the heart.”

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