<Tr> <Th> Education </Th> <Td> Art Center College of Design, Pasadena </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Known for </Th> <Td> Painting </Td> </Tr> <P> William Thomas Kinkade III (January 19, 1958--April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects . He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via the Thomas Kinkade Company . He characterized himself as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light", a phrase he protected through trademark but which was originally attributed to the British master J.M.W. Turner (1775--1851). According to Kinkade's company, one in every twenty American homes owns a copy of one of his paintings . </P> <P> Despite wide commercial success throughout his life, Kinkade is generally held in low esteem by art critics; his pastoral paintings have been described as maudlin and overly sentimental . </P>

Who is known as the painter of light