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PAINTING HIS HEART OUT by Stephanie Allan Spotting a Kinkade creation in any gallery is easy once you've met painter Thomas Kinkade, who brings more to his canvasses than just color.       It's a crisp October evening in the heart of the Mother Lode, California's Gold Country. The gym-turned-banquet-hall in Auburn, Calif., appears dressed up and ready for a good time. The event: The kick-off of the Auburn Centennial celebration. The highlight: The unveiling of artist Thomas Kinkade's latest creation, a rendering of downtown Auburn. This painting, 350 hours in the making, will hang in the Auburn library as a permanent reminder of this special year.       As the house lights fade and the tract lights brighten, the black veil covering the painting slowly drops. The crowd murmurs a concurrent "Ohhhh," followed by applause that rolls through the room like thunder across the mountain sky.       Snatches of conversation: "Look at that detail!" "It almost looks real, doesn't it?" "Beautiful, simply beautiful."       From an airy mountain studio surrounded by rolling hills and a small herd of cows, Thomas creates the paintings admired not only by Auburn's townspeople but also by the more than 400 corporate and private collectors who spend from $1,000 to $25,000 per painting. Since Thomas began selling his works full time in 1982, more than 500 of his paintings have graced gallery walls. Thomas produced 60 pieces in 1987 alone.       Once familiar with his style, collectors can easily spot a Kinkade in any gallery; each work is marked by Thomas' characteristic depth, detail and luminosity. Each scene seems to glow from within itself. To capture towns and landscapes accurately, 30-year-old Thomas spends hours researching historical documents and old photographs. He visits and sketches the location repeatedly, little by little adding the detailed vignettes.       Because he's a painter and not a photographer, Thomas can choose to put in or leave out any detail he chooses. In some cases he will leave out telephone poles or other modern elements in the scene because they detract from the romantic image he wishes to portray.       Even as a 4-year-old, Thomas knew he wanted to be an artist. After he finished high school in the serene mountain town of Placerville in 1976, he attended the University of California at Berkeley before packing his bags and heading for the fast pace of Southern California. There he spent two years at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.       Grueling hours and the beginnings of professional success awaited Thomas there. In an apartment in the decaying part of town, Thomas and fellow artists worked at perfecting their crafts. To pay for college and the myriads of art supplies he needed, Thomas worked part time as a pizza delivery man to the ghetto neighborhoods of Los Angeles, until hoodlums stabbed and killed a co-worker one night.       Sometimes living for days at a time on a 69-cent, 10-pound bag of potatoes, pre-cooked at a friend's place because his had no oven, Thomas proved that his dedication to his art formed the core of his life.       But this stressful period brought about in Thomas a desire to return to church. As a child, Thomas attended church, but since then he had maintained only an on-again, off-again relationship with God. "I always knew in the back of my mind I had to get back to the Lord," Thomas remembers. "I prayed and read the Bible even during the darkest phases of my college life. But it took being under the stressful conditions of Art Center to make me realize my absolute need."       And then, at a church in Pasadena, Thomas found something he had never known before: fellowship with people who were wholly committed to the Lord. "People were making a commitment to the Lord that was not based on dos and don'ts, but on a complete, all-consuming love for the gospel and for Jesus, and a desire to live that way, letting their lifestyle fall in line based on their commitment, not the other way around," Thomas recalls.       This was a way of life so radically different from his that Thomas decided he needed to make a firm commitment to Christ.       Thomas likes to say that when he got saved, his art got saved too. God became his art agent. "When I became a Christian," Thomas says, "I prayed, Lord, open doors that You would have me go through, shut those You don't want me to go through, and do it every time so that I know clearly how to develop the talent You've given me. There was no doubt in my mind but that my work would be a ministry and that it would be used by God, because I was already getting attention for it, and I knew that I had the potential to be successful in that field."       One of the greatest thrills in Thomas' life came when he was still a student at the Art Center. With two of his best paintings in hand, Thomas jumped on his Honda motorcycle and headed for an uptown, fine-art gallery. The minute the proprietor saw the paintings, dollar signs lit up in his eyes.       The first thing the man wanted to do was advertise Thomas' work and possibly set up a show for him. To the 21-year-old Thomas, this was a dream come true. And the price tag attached to it all would keep him in potatoes for months.       But because artists can seldom be tied down to one place for too long, Thomas eventually left the Art Center, and he and his good friend Jim Gurney shouldered their backpacks, took up their sketch pads and rode the rails across America, doing sketches of people for $2 apiece to earn their way. Their idea? Create a book on sketching that would be different from all the other "how-to' books then available.       Their six-week sojourn resulted in popular Artist's Guide to Sketching, published in 1980 by one of the largest publishing houses in New York.       Once he completed work on the book, Thomas decided he needed another adventure, so with no introduction or knowledge of whether a position would be available, Thomas went to Hollywood to inquire about a job as a production artist for one of the major studios.       Again, when the producer saw Thomas' port-folio, he hired him on the spot. The result? Eighteen months and 600 paintings of back-ground scenery for a feature-length, animated fantasy film called "Fire and Ice."       During this time of traveling and working among the down-and-out on the rails and the rich-and-famous in Honywood, Thomas felt that he also sought something for himself. His relationship with God again seemed ethereal. He needed solid footing.       He found that solidity in Nanette, his child-hood sweetheart. On May 2, 1982, Thomas and Nanette wed, an event he honors by including the numbers 5, 2 and 82 in all his paintings.       Drawn by memories of their childhood home, Thomas and Nanette headed for the beauty and serenity of those quiet, Sierra-foothill towns and settled, once again, in Placerville. Its rich frontier heritage complemented Thomas' artistic style perfectly. From the moment that lucky placer, James Marshall, discovered the first dusting of gold near John Sutter's mill northeast of Sacramento in1848, the richness of the Mother Lode became a thing of legend, a romantic, new frontier soon sought by thousands for its riches.       Thomas Kinknde possesses more than a bit of that air of romance himself. And he loves to bring out that romance in his historical paintings, though the only period of history he likes to paint is the 19th century. He doesn't think people can relate to anything older.       Remembering that during the Renaissance the church commissioned almost all of the art being created then, Thomas says, "As Christians, we have to he a voice crying out in the wilderness. We have to let our art shine forth in the midst of the darkness. My goal is to be a strong force in the secular art world at large, to, in effect, help reclaim that territory for the gospel."       Thomas feels that he does that both with the level of excellence God helps him achieve and the verbal testimony he gives. Thomas sows a small seed with his signature on his paintings by including a small fish symbol and often the Bible reference "John 3:16."       As an additional ministry, he offers his talent to God's people by creating commissioned pieces not only for businesses and towns but for Christian groups such as churches and radio ministries. He did one scene for an organization caned "The Mysteries of Creation," which was turned into a print and sold to raise money to provide biblical creation seminars for secular schools.       He also believes that Christians' work should be superior to their competition's. After all, he says, we have the Holy Spirit as our helper. In turn, he strives to produce the absolutely best Work he is capable of. Thomas and Nanette also run a fine-art print business, producing and selling fine prints of Thomas' paintings.       The limited edition fine prints sell for $150; unlimited posters bring $25 to $35. Since the business began in 1984, the Kinkades have sold thousands of prints through a network of outlets that has grown to more than 200 galleries nationwide and in Canada. Thomas' original paintings are extremely popular, which helps the print business do very well.       Along with popular American folk artist Norman Rockwell, who Thomas sees as one who was able to translate his art into the language of the common man, Thomas calls the apostle Peter one of his heroes.       "Peter is a hero of mine because of his steadfastness yet his frailty, his ability to dynamically stand for the gospel in the midst of his own shortcomings," Thomas explains. "I know I'm zealous for the gospel to a fault at times. So much so that I've caught myself in pride or in judgment of others and all other manner of sin. So it's that fine balance that I've learned from Peter.       "I try to remember that I am a minister with a paint brush. I simply want to use pigment and canvas and paintbrushes to create images that are uplifting to others, representative of the One who lives inside of me."       In Auburn, the unveiling of Thomas' commissioned painting receives rave reviews. Afterward, the Kinkades sell hundreds of fine reproductions of the painting. Thomas sits at a long table with Nanette by his side and autographs prints for the patrons, accepting their effusive praise with a small nod and a humbleness of spirit unusual in an artist of his stature. Tonight, discounted prices bring increased sales, and 50 percent of the proceeds go to the Centennial Committee.       Thomas keeps his success in perspective and realizes that his handiwork will not last forever. He knows no regrets about that, for he doesn't seek immortalization on earth. "The only things that have any value," he says, "are those things that are built on the foundation of God's Word. The only value my paintings have is the extent to which they've been used for the Kingdom."