"Night in Day is my breakthrough painting. I guess you could say that this was the first piece that helped me get in touch with who I'm becoming," says Blackshear. No one, not even Thomas Blackshear himself, can tell you who he is becoming, but we can tell you who he is now. He is one of the world's most successful, much-sought, and versatile commercial and fine artists.

Night in Day was created at the dawn of a fresh burst of creativity for Blackshear. "I wanted to create a new piece for the Society of Illustrators art show in San Francisco, and Night in Day became my breakthrough. It was the first time I saw a painting in my head before I did it. I even knew the name of it. Every piece I did from that point on was different. I had a new goal, a new outlook, and a new reason for what I was doing."

Night in Day represents the nighttime wrapped in daylight, but it also symbolizes any person's emergence from the darkness of doubt into the light of love and hope. Blackshear's mastery of light and dark, influenced by such illustrators of the "golden age" as Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth, creates a timeless, landmark image.

-- Thomas Blackshear