Tom Nielsen brings to each canvas over four decades of study and painting experience. Born in 1948, he began his painting career in his home state of Iowa. His grandmother - a talented artist herself - provided an early start to his training. He began oil painting at the age of ten and by the time he entered the Navy in the mid 1960's, his career as a an artist was already established. For a number of years he divided his time between graphic design and fine art in the Washington, D.C. area. He now maintains his studio in Carrollton, Georgia along with his artist wife, Jan. In addition to his portraits and landscapes that can be found in collections worldwide, he designed a commemorative silver dollar for the U.S. Mint and a bronze medallion for the U.S. Congress. In 2004, he painted landscapes of The Marshes of Glynn that were given by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to each of the Leaders at the G8 Sea Island Summit. Today, he continues painting portraits, genre, and scenes near his studio and far afield.

A partial list of portrait subjects:

Congressman Glenn M. Anderson	Chmn. House Committee on Public Works
Honorable Jesse Brown	Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs
Senator Robert Byrd	Senate Democratic Leader
President George Bush (1991)	Vietnam Veterans Institute
Senator Alan Cranston	California
Senator Rober Dole	Senate Republican Leader
Congressman G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery	Chmn. House Veterans Affairs Committee
Wayne Newton	Entertainer
Honorable Anthony Principi	Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs
President Ronald Reagan	The Reagan Library
Senator Alan Simpson	Wyoming
Senator Strom Thurmond	South Carolina
General William C. Westmoreland	Former Army Chief of Staff
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.	Former Chief of Naval Operations
A partial list of public and private collections with either a portrait or landscape by Tom:
Department of Veterans Affairs	United States House of Representatives
Mississippi State University	South Carolina State Museum
Morris Museum of Art	The Reagan Library
President George Bush	Prime Minister Tony Blair, UK
President Jacques Chirac, France	Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan
Chancellor Gerhard Schoeder, Germany	President Vladimir Putin, Russia
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy	Prime Minister Paul Martin, Canada
DANA Corporation	First Georgia Banking Company
National Guard Headquarters, Wash. D.C.