♪ You better watch out ♪ ♪ You better not cry ♪ ♪ You better not pout ♪ ♪ I'm telling you why ♪ ♪ Why ♪ ♪ Santa Claus is comin' to town ♪ ♪ Gather round ♪ ♪ He's making a list ♪ ♪ And checking it twice ♪ ♪ He's going to found out who's naughty and nice ♪ ♪ Santa Claus is comin' to town ♪ - [Narrator] You can't find a more classic image of Santa Claus.

You can almost hear Santa's chuckle or smell the smoke from his pipe.

♪ So be good for goodness sake ♪ (festive music) - [Storyteller] "His eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples, how merry.

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry.

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow."

- [Narrator] The painting is from the brush of this man, Tom Browning.

(festive music) And currently, he's probably the best known painter of the jolly old elf.

He licenses his Santa images for cards, bags, puzzles and more.

His Santas are seen in stores all over the country.

And yet, this whole Christmas side of his painting career began almost by accident.

- I always wanted to have a painting of Santa just to hang up at Christmas time.

And so I must have been, I think it was 1980.

So I was getting close to 30 years old, and I thought, "I'm just going to do a painting of Santa."

So I did Santa feeding some geese, 'cause I was doing a lot of wildlife at that time.

- [Narrator] A publisher saw the painting and wanted to make Christmas cards of the image.

It turned out to be a big seller.

That got Tom and his wife, Joyce, thinking.

- I think it was '84.

My wife, Joyce, wanted to have some kind of business out of the house so she could take care of our son.

And we thought about these Santas.

And so we tried a couple of designs and put 'em out there, and they took off like crazy.

- [Narrator] Wanting to have some fun with it, Tom began to imagine what Santa Claus might be doing on the other 364 days of the year.

The series, "Santa's Time Off," was born, with Santa golfing, (upbeat music) on the beach, even cooking.

- There was nothing on the market with Santa golfing or Santa fishing or whatever.

It was just kind of a concept that we came up with, and it became very popular and the business continued to double every year.

And we would get lots of ideas people would send in, "You got to have Santa doing this and that."

But obviously, I hadn't really thought of, but wouldn't have time to do anyway.

- [Interviewer] What's the wackiest suggestion you've gotten?

- Oh geez.

Eating Chinese food in a Chinese restaurant (laughing) probably.

(festive music) - But Tom also wanted to paint Santa Claus in the tradition of the classic Coca-Cola Santas he grew up with.

- That was my ideal Santa.

I thought that's what he should look like.

And so when I started doing Santas, just in my subconscious, that's kind of what I tried to emulate was that look.

- [Narrator] So he did this Santa with a wreath.

- [Tom] This was one of the first straight, traditional ones that I did.

And the feedback we got off of this kind of let us know that the traditional Santa would be every bit as popular as the "Santa's Time Off."

- [Narrator] Now Tom says he does maybe 90% traditional settings for Santa and 10% what you might call alternative Santa.

Joyce manages the high demand for her husband's art.

- He's a very popular artist right now.

He's the best known Santa Claus painter in America right now.

And there are companies like Hallmark, Impossible Dreams that use his designs regularly every year as a part of their product line.

I think about 56 designs in our product line right now.

- [Interviewer] What's it like for you to walk through a Hallmark store and see your husband's images on cards and gift bags?

- Well, it's exciting to see his images out there, because I receive phone calls and emails from friends and family all around the nation that say, "I've seen Tom's cards here and there."

And it makes it nice for him, so that they can see his work.

- [Narrator] Tom could make a living off just his Santa Claus art alone, but there's another completely different side to this painter, what Tom calls his fine art.

He does portraits, (bright piano music) landscapes, Western art, and gorgeous still lifes.

He may be almost too versatile for his own good.

However, as wide as the variety may be, Tom says there's one unifying element in all of his paintings: the light.

- I'd say one of my main concerns about every painting that I do, any painting that I have up here, is getting a convincing sense of light.

And that requires really paying attention to use of light and shadows.

And that's my main focus in just about every painting is trying to get the light convincing.

(bright piano music) - One reason Tom is so adamant about getting the light right is that he managed to get his art degree from the University of Oregon without really learning much about that.

- It was more contemporary and modern type art that the whole art department was engaged in.

And that was okay to a certain point, but I was really looking for a little more traditional instruction.

I realized I was a little short on fundamentals and that sort of thing.

So I worked with a lot of other painters whose work I admired and I thought they were very capable, and I got a lot out of that.

- [Narrator] For a while, Tom didn't let some people know he did both fine art and the more illustrative Santas.

- It was a struggle at first because I was intentionally trying to keep 'em separate, because I thought in the fine art field, if there was this knowledge that I was doing these illustrations, that that might be frowned on.

And so I just tried to keep it separate.

- [Narrator] But when word got out, Tom got nothing but admiration from his peers.

And perhaps that's because, whether it's light reflecting on a jug and onions in a still life or the glow illuminating Santa's face as he rises from the chimney, Tom's ability to capture the light makes every subject a work of art.

- [Santa] Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Ho ho ho.

(no audio) (no audio) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Oregon Art Beat" shares the stories of Oregon's amazing artists.

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