Thomas Fluharty has always been an artist. Drawing and painting came naturally to him from an early age, drawing his way through Math class or in the car on the way to Little League, or during breakfast.

At the prodding of a tenth grade art teacher, he applied for a commercial art vocational school for his junior and senior year and was accepted. There he was exposed to artists like Maxfield Parrish, Bernie Fuchs, and Bob Peak. He was hooked, and becoming an illustrator became the main pursuit of his life.

At graduation he was accepted into the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, majoring in illustration, and then graduated and was offered a job in New York City’s premier illustration studio, Gem Studio, where he was trained under Ken Bald of Dr. Kildare and Dark Shadows fame for thirteen years.

Tom has furthered his studies at the Art Students League and at The School of Visual Arts. About twelve years ago he was classically trained in the Dutch and Flemish techniques studying with Jeff Hurinenko and the great Joe Paquet.

His work has been featured on covers for Mad magazine, Der Spiegel, and Time Magazine, who gave the cover to the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. His work is notably featured for The Weekly Standard, for whom he has painted over 100 covers. Other clients have included People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, The Village Voice, Coca-Cola, and the New York Times.

Fluharty’s work has received national recognition from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles and Communication Arts Illustration annuals. He won a gold medal from Spectrum Fantastical Art for his depiction of Hillary Clinton, and a bronze medal for the cover painting of Max Lucado’s book, The Boy and the Ocean for 3x3  Magazine of Contemporary Illustration under his children’s book alias T. Lively Fluharty.

His work is also in the personal collections of Astronaut and Senator John Glenn, Pat Boone, Naomi Judd, the late movie director Robert Altman.

Fluharty loves working with students all over the world teaching online with Schoolism.com where he teaches drawing and painting.
 
He is happily married to the love of his life Kristi, has five amazing daughters, and two crazy dogs, Cash and Biddy.