Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920 in Mesa, Arizona. He spent over ten years working in New York and Hollywood as a cartoonist and advertisement designer, before joining the USAAF in 1942. Thiebaud is best known for his paintings of production line objects found in diners and cafeterias such as pies and pastries. He was associated with the Pop Art painters in his interest with objects of mass culture but his technique differed in that he used very thick paint. He later went on to paint popular characters such as Mickey Mouse and recent paintings such as 'Sunset Streets' (1985) and 'Flatland River' (1997) are notable for their hyper realism, in some ways similar to Edward Hopper in his fascination with the mundane scenes from everyday American life.

Above: Wayne Thiebaud, Three Machines, 1963