Tom Colcord is a painter and art educator based in San Francisco, California, whose work traverses the boundary between the physical and the psychological. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Colcord’s artistic journey began in the heartland but has carried him to the creative pulse of the West Coast. He holds a BFA in Painting from Indiana University Bloomington and an MFA in Studio Art from the San Francisco Art Institute, two experiences that shaped both his technique and conceptual foundation.
Now living and working in San Francisco, Colcord balances multiple creative roles. He serves as the Bay Area Representative for Dixon Ticonderoga and Strathmore Paper, while also teaching at Artworks Fine Art Studio, where he shares his passion and knowledge with the next generation of artists. In 2021–22, he was awarded the Tournesol Award at the Headlands Center for the Arts, an honor that recognized his distinct contribution to contemporary painting.
Most days, Colcord can be found painting en plein air in Golden Gate Park, where the interplay of light, atmosphere, and human perception continuously inspires his artistic explorations.
Exploring the Psychological Landscape
Colcord’s practice stretches across multiple approaches from large-scale surrealism to plein air painting all unified by his fascination with the psychological dimensions of landscape. His paintings go beyond mere depiction of place; they reveal the complex mental terrains where memory, emotion, and imagination intersect.
By combining interior and exterior elements, Colcord constructs what he calls “landscapes of the mind.” These are spaces that feel both familiar and otherworldly, logical in their structure yet elusive in their meaning. They invite the viewer to reflect on how perception itself is a creative act, and how the realities we construct in our minds often differ from the world as it truly is.
The Philosophy Behind the Paint
Colcord describes his work as an inquiry into the nature of consciousness. He sees the mind as a physical and evolutionary extension of the body, a “limb” capable of running complex simulations to anticipate future experiences and process the past. This conception transforms painting into a form of mental cartography, mapping the invisible structures of thought.
Through collage-like compositions, Colcord fuses disparate interior and exterior scenes, forming cohesive yet dreamlike images. These layered constructions reflect the subjective nature of perception, where every individual’s version of reality is shaped by shifting memories, emotions, and beliefs. The result is a visual language that mirrors how the mind navigates, edits, and reinterprets experience.
Colcord’s work resonates with philosophical and psychological undertones, suggesting that painting is not merely about seeing, but about understanding how we see. His process becomes a meditation on awareness itself: how the brain’s constant interplay between past, present, and future generates meaning, emotion, and ultimately, identity.
Landscapes as Mirrors of the Mind
For Colcord, the landscape genre serves as an ideal vessel for this exploration. Unlike portraiture or abstraction, landscape painting allows for a simultaneous expression of vastness and intimacy, fullness and emptiness qualities that mirror the duality of the human mind.
Much like the Impressionists used light to capture fleeting moments in time, Colcord uses form, space, and juxtaposition to capture a moment of consciousness. Each brushstroke contributes to a dialogue between inner and outer worlds, between what is seen and what is felt.
The landscapes he paints are not simply geographical; they are psychological environments, where physical spaces become metaphors for mental states. Through the blending of realism and surrealism, he invites viewers to question where reality ends and imagination begins.
A Surreal Sincerity: Intimate Astrology
Among Colcord’s most compelling works is Intimate Astrology, a piece that encapsulates his signature synthesis of observation and invention. The title itself suggests a convergence of the personal and the cosmic, a mapping of internal constellations that guide the psyche.
In this work, fragments of familiar environments collide with abstract, dreamlike forms. The viewer might recognize architectural details, celestial symbols, or organic textures, but they exist in a space untethered from logical geography. The painting feels alive with associative meaning, as if the viewer were peering directly into the artist’s mental landscape, one where thoughts, memories, and sensations orbit around one another in an intricate dance.
Intimate Astrology exemplifies Colcord’s ability to translate consciousness into image, making the intangible visible through the language of paint. The result is not only visually striking but also emotionally and intellectually immersive, prompting reflection on how our inner worlds shape what we perceive as reality.
Educator, Observer, Explorer
Beyond his studio practice, Colcord’s role as an educator reflects his belief in the continual evolution of artistic consciousness. Teaching at Artworks Fine Art Studio allows him to pass on both technical skill and philosophical inquiry, encouraging students to see painting as a way of thinking as much as a way of seeing.
His plein air sessions in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park serve as both research and meditation. In observing the natural world firsthand, he reconnects with the physical sources of perception that ground his more conceptual explorations. For Colcord, art-making becomes a cyclical process: experience informs imagination, and imagination reframes experience.
Conclusion: Painting as Conscious Reflection
Tom Colcord’s art stands as a testament to painting’s enduring power to probe the unseen realms of the human condition. By merging the outer landscape with the inner psyche, his work captures a vision of consciousness that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Through his distinctive blend of surrealism, psychology, and plein air practice, Colcord invites viewers to reflect not just on what they see but on how they see. His paintings reveal that every image, like every thought, is both a mirror and a mystery: a reflection of the world within us and a question about the world beyond.
