Tom Root has been a professional figure and portrait painter for over 35 years, known for his sympathetic portrayals of people. Early on, Tom was interested in being a part of a contemporary figurative revival. He loved historic portraiture but intensely disliked modern formula-based commercial portraiture and desired to see contemporary portraiture reconnected with fine art. This has been the goal of much of his work.

Tom Root was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1958. He studied drawing and painting at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut, under Aaron Shikler N.A. and Deane G. Keller, and at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.
Tom has work in private and public collections across the country, and is a popular teacher and workshop leader. He and his wife, artist Peggy Root, founded a small community art school in 2011 – Root Studio School, near their home in Jonesborough, Tennessee, where they teach art fundamentals to all ages and levels. In addition to being a painter, Tom is also a songwriter, musician, and a writer of children’s stories.