Tom Maakestad works and lives in Marine on St. Croix, MN where he has maintained a studio for the past 16 years. The Minneapolis area has been home-base since 1992. Prior to that Tom and his wife Anna lived in Hong Kong for 7 years where they both had busy careers and traveled extensively throughout Asia. Trekking in Nepal, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand among other countries gave them a first hand observation of different cultures and art forms.

As a painter Maakestad’s main subject matter continues to be inspired by the broad valleys and agricultural regions near his family farm in Northfield, Minnesota. These landscape paintings have been included in collections at the Mayo Clinic and many others across the US and overseas. The US State Department purchased four of his southern Minnesota oil pastels for the Ambassador's residence in Oslo, Norway. Additionally in the fall of 2016 he was invited to exhibit 4 paintings at the US Embassy in Oslo. The exhibition organized by the US Ambassador brought together many luminaries of the Norwegian gallery and museum world.