Painting for Thomas Higgins is an active and intuitive process of participating in natural spaces. By working primarily on site through direct sensory experience, he seeks a mode of animated, painterly realism. Of fundamental interest is the visual complexity of bogs and other ecosystems that inspire his pursuit of the miraculous in the commonplace. Through his expressive mark-making and gestural brushstrokes, Higgins strives for the point when all of the elements have meshed into an essential, emotive image.

Higgins grew up in New Hope, Pennsylvania, graduated cum laude from Maryville College (Tennessee) and received his MS and MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His paintings have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in the U. S. and abroad, including at U. S. embassies in Canada, Hungary, Iceland, Gambia, Greece and France. Residencies for which he was selected include Acadia National Park and the Joseph A. Fiore Art Center.

Having taught at Marietta College (Ohio), Colby College, and in the University of Maine System, Higgins retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Maine at Farmington. He continues to be an outdoor enthusiast and advocate for untrammeled places.

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