BIO
Born in 1982, Tom French grew up in Newcastle Upon Tyne, North East England. Tom began his studies at the Newcastle School of Art and Design and went on to graduate from the Sheffield Institute of Art and Design achieving a first class BA Honors in 2005. Through his work, French focuses on the reflection of the conscious and subconscious mind. His oil paintings are a skillful combination of academic realism and surrealism, enveloped in carefree, loose and ostensibly unfinished abstract forms. This unique fusion of figurative realism and lively abstraction brings life and movement to his compositions, often suggesting an underlying emotional narrative and visual intrigue. His works are predominantly figurative. He carefully combines detailed photorealism with strong elements of abstraction and surrealism, focusing on the reflection of the conscious and subconscious mind. French’s work often treads the fine line between the beautiful and unsettling, combining technically tight, classical charcoal drawings with carefree, loose and ostensibly unfinished abstract forms. By fusing the technical with lively abstraction French brings life and movement to his compositions. His work seamlessly merges the use of academic tradition with contemporary urban realism.