Theodore's Online Gallery

Early Works

Portrait of Leighton Coombs
1970 Conte Crayon on Paper
13.5 x 11 inches
Artist's Collection

Theodore began his portrait work around the age of 15 when he began doing photorealistic, monochrome conte drawings. This surviving example was from a photo of his great uncle, Leighton Coombs. At the time he drew this portrait he thought he was drawing his grandfather. This drawing was signed with his initials TJC.

1990

Mexican Girl
1990 Oil on Canvas
9 x 12 inches
Private Collection of Mark Van Thillo

1990 was a prolific year for Theodore. This was an early 1990 oil painting from an extensive photographic trip to Tijuana Mexico. Touched by this little girl selling gum at the border, Theodore captures her sad charm. He gave this painting as a gift to an adventurer friend of his, Mark Van Thillo. 1990 was also the year that Theodore drew his largest pastel portrait (not shown) of Trent Nelson, adapted from a newspaper article. His first pastel drawing of that year (not shown) was also adapted from a newspaper photo and is drawn in his trademark style of colored chalk pastels on black paper.

Theodore was particularly excited about a small pastel on brown paper of children playing soccer drawn in 1990 and given as a gift to employees of Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco. The whereabouts of this picture are currently unknown. This action-filled pastel was drawn from a photo taken by Theodore one afternoon in the Berkeley, California hills.

1991

Portrait of Zaean Hensley
1991 Pastel on Brown Paper
10 x 8 inches
Artist's  Collection

Experimenting with color in this portrait we see that Theodore was not constrained to merely duplicating photos in other media. Zaean Hensley was a friend of Theodore's.

1996

Surfer on Cardiff Beach
1997 Oil on Canvas
9 x 12 inches
Artist's Collection

Not known for his landscapes, Theodore was inspired one afternoon to capture this young surfer on the rocks of Cardiff State Beach, in California.

Cowboy

1997 Oil on Canvas

10 x 8 inches

Artist's Collection

 

1998

Portrait of Emily Coombs
1998 Oil on Canvas
Artist's Collection

This portrait of Theodore's daughter-in law, Emily, demonstrates Theodore's ability to use light to capture mood.

 

Theodore Coombs is a member of the American Society of Portrait Artists.