Kinkade’s Production Arm Emerges with Clearer Financial Picture

In a tone as uplifting as one of his portraits, Thomas Kinkade’s art empire announced that its separately operated production unit has emerged from bankruptcy protection.

A San Jose, Calif., judge approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for the painter’s manufacturing subsidiary, formally called Pacific Metro LLC, enabling the business to begin following the formula for financial success it devised under the bankruptcy court’s watch.

Under that plan, the subsidiary proposed to pay off all of the allowed claims put forth by the subsidiary’s more than 185 creditors—a promise that helped it win over key groups that had to sign off on it. The company’s debt measured about $19 million when it filed for bankruptcy protection a little more than a year ago.

Kinkade, who’s branded as the “Painter of Light,” sells pleasant-looking sceneryscapes that are often given affirmation names like “Nature’s Paradise” and  “Spirit of New York.” Keeping in theme, Pacific Metro Chief Operating Officer Frank Teruel said the restructuring “positions [the company] for a bright future.”

“We’re grateful to our creditors for working to make this plan a success,” he said in a released statement. “The company will continue publishing some of Thomas Kinkade’s best paintings. We continue to branch into a variety of new subject matter, expanding his fan base, and adding to a prolific body of work that now includes over 1,000 images.”

Pacific Metro produced artwork that the company sold through a network of licensed art galleries whose relationships were blamed in part for prompting the subsidiary to file for bankruptcy protection.

Kinkade’s collection of portraits are seen as accessible, but they elicit eye-rolls from art snobs who scoff at the artwork’s perceived lack of depth and liken the mass-produced paintings to soulless things like hamburgers. Despite the replication, the paintings still cost hundreds of dollars.