Brea’n Thompson is a lovely woman with pastel braids in her hair, and her art is as striking as she is. She is new to Wichita Falls, but her art has people talking. She is currently showing her art at the Wichita Falls Art Association Gallery to the delight of visitors. Even though being an artist comes naturally, her true goal in life is to make the world a better place.
When she was 13 she used to impress her friends with drawings of celebrities. At 14 she found her niche—murals. She painted a mural at her mother’s house and fell in love with the process and the gratification of a job well done. “I started painting professionally a year ago with oil paints,” Brea’n said, “But I have always painted. I switched to making this a fulltime job when we moved here. My husband is in the military. It is so hard to get and hold down a job since we move so often. And this is what I want to do, but I kept talking myself out of it.”
She did a lot of talking to
herself to come to this decision. In fact, she didn’t show her paintings until last year. “I started posting my art, and my friends were like, ‘When did you start painting?’”
She has shown her art twice in Dallas at the Conception Art Fair and won 2nd place at her first show. According to Brea’n, they have several fairs across the United States and Australia. She will be showing her art again with them in Los Angeles in September.
Brea’n paints not only for pleasure and the drive that artists must show their hearts on canvas, but it is also therapeutic for her. She has a form of autism called synesthesia that is very rare. “Synesthesia is where you can hear color and see sound. What my art means to me has a lot to do with my mental health, so I put on music and paint. A lot of the faces in my portraits are crazy swirls of colors, beautiful, but I find peace in my surroundings. I paint every day and I waste a lot of paint,” Brea’n said with a smile.
Most of her oil paintings are in shades of blue and purple, and like any artist she doesn’t like every piece of art that she creates. Artists often doubt the validity of their work, and she is no different.
Her favorite type of art is painting murals. She has painted a few murals in the Texoma area. One at Heritage Antiques, and the subject is a colorful sunset in the background with windmill and a water tank that says Heritage Antiques. Another one is at the Burk Village Preschool. It has three teddy bears, each seven and a half feet tall, with paintings inside the outlines of the bears. Each bear represents different things about Wichita Falls. For instance, one has the “falls” in it, one is about a village raising a child, and the third one has paintings depicting Midwestern State University, SAFB and the Hotter N’ Hell Bike Race. What she loves most about painting murals is taking someone’s idea and arranging it in a way they don’t expect. Her most recent public piece is at 8th Street Coffee House. She will also be participating in the upcoming downtown crosswalk art project where she will be one of 6 artists that will be permanently painting 6 intersections.
She and her husband, Mathew, have a gifted son who is 5 years old named Miles. Miles is already showing promise as a photographer. Her husband is a guitarist, so talent runs in the family.
As far as changing the world, Brea’n donates 10 percent of her sales to the Veteran’s Relief Fund here in Wichita Falls. She is excited about the project that consists of building tiny houses for homeless veterans. She also donates another 10 percent to Stamp Out Hunger in Wichita Falls.
-Cindy Thomas
