Painter Thomas Cavanaugh (1923-2019) graduated from Danville High School (IL) in 1940 and served in the 448th Military Police in Iceland during World War II. After the war, Cavanaugh graduated with a B.A. in fine arts in 1947 and earned an M.F.A. with awards in painting and art history in 1950 from the University of Illinois. He also attended the Farnsworth School of Art in 1946 and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1948. He also received a McLellan Fellowship from U of I in 1950 and a Fulbright Award for painting in 1956.
Cavanaugh served as art director for the Springfield Illinois Art Association, and served on the faculties of the Kansas City Art Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, spending the majority of his career at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (1957-1983), where he was a full professor, acting chairman of the School of Arts, served as director of painting and drawing for the School of Fine Arts for 16 years, and retired as professor emeritus.
For more than 60 summers, he was the director and owner of the Bay Street Studio in Boothbay Harbor, ME opening his doors to visual artists and writers as a retreat. Cavanaugh exhibited in many mediums in more than 160 regional and national shows, and 20 solo shows. His work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Biennials in Washington, D.C. He either wrote or co-wrote two books, published in periodicals, and his work is held in more than a dozen public collections including the University of Illinois, New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana State University, and in many private collections.
