Dozens of framed pictures of wine fill the walls and stand on the floor nearby. Still lives crowded with bottles and glasses fill Galleria's Off the Wall gallery with sparkling highlights, mellow wood and deep burgundy pools so crisp you can practically taste them. Casual but not sloppy, sleeves rolled, the painter leans back from his work and says, without condescension, "People have a McDonald's mentality.
" People like things they already know.
He's putting finishing touches on a small painting that will be the centerpiece of tonight's event: a Thomas Arvid wine dinner at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar. Arvid is on tour, visiting galleries and steakhouses across the country to promote his products.
It all began in Atlanta, where Arvid, working by day in a print shop, began painting in his basement at night. Untrained as an artist, he quickly gained confidence and got a gig painting in public at TuTu Tango, a cafe where he could show and sell his work. Direct contact with the public was his school.
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