J. Thomas R. Higgins

American (b. 1943)

Tom Higgins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1943. He graduated cum laude from Maryville College in Tennessee and received an M.S. and M.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Higgins has taught at Marietta College, Colby College, the University of Maine, the University of Southern Maine, and the University of Maine Farmington, having recently retired from UMF as Professor Emeritus and honored with a retrospective exhibition of his work. He has exhibited at galleries throughout Maine, as well as in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and elsewhere in the United States. Additionally, Higgins’ work has been shown internationally through the Department of State Art-in-Embassies Program at the following U.S. Embassies: Banjul, Gambia; Reykjavik, Iceland; Budapest, Hungary; Ottawa, Canada. From 1990-1992 he participated in Plaidoyer pour la Terre (For the Defense of the Earth), a travelling exhibition that was shown in numerous cities in France, including at Galerie du Grande Palais in Paris. In 1988 he had several solo exhibitions in and around Budapest, Hungary. Two years later he returned to Budapest and engaged in the First Europ’ Art Meeting Hungary, following the collapse of the communist regime.

Higgins’ paintings have been featured in a number of books: Maine Art Now; The Art of Maine in Winter; On Wilderness: Voices from Maine; Paintings of Maine; Art of Katahdin. His work has been represented in numerous corporate and private collections that include the following: Art Bank, United States Department of State, Washington, DC; American Council on Education, Washington, DC; Bates College Museum of Art; University of Southern Maine; Prudential Insurance Company of America; Norma B. Marin Collection of Maine Art; Casco Northern Bank Collection; King Faisal Conference Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Philadelphia Life Insurance Company; Bank of America. Having recently been selected for an artist-in-residency at Acadia National Park for May of 2014, Higgins continues to be an outdoor enthusiast, capturing dynamic landscapes full of energy and color.