Kent Thompson was a 1975 |graduate from Kansas State University, he began teaching in the Linn school district and had been |the art teacher in the Osborne district since 1979. He retired from the Osborne district in July of 2015. From 2016 to 2018 he taught .art at Southern Valley high school in south central Nebraska. He is interested in sports and was a coach for various sports in the schools and the community until 2006. An avid outdoors-man, he enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking, and nature.

 

Subject matter and media for his work varies widely. Expressionism, formalism, and art as imitation are all art philosophies that he has used in his work. Landscape has always been a subject matter for Kent. Over the years he has created images of the area around Osborne and places he has visited in several different media, so the idea of incorporating landscape images in clay or metal was a natural progression. “Most of my work has been very traditional in form, although I am moving more and more into abstract sculptural images. Currently I am working on a series of abstract paintings expressing the spirit of living in rural Kansas, where nature can be calm and serene, or take on a more forceful entity.”

 

Kent lives in Osborne with his wife Shirley. He has four children and three son-in-laws and one daughter-in-law: Carrie (Dr. Charles Rottinghaus). Jacqueline (Morgan Remus), Scott (Megan), and Renee (Ephraim Harrell). He has nine grandchildren: Ava, Owen, Isaac, and Elias Rottinghaus, Hagen and Grant Remus, and Ariana and Ethan Harrell.

 

Patrons in over 40 states and two foreign countries own artwork by Kent. He has received numerous awards in area art contests and exhibits.