Tom Hughes is a self-taught painter based in Bristol with a studio space in Jamaica Street Studios, one of the city’s main artist communities. Starting his career as an illustrator, he turned to painting in 2012.
Tom is interested in capturing the reality of his surroundings with oil paint en plein air, usually finishing off his paintings in the studio. But his intention is also to render the poetry of his subject, “to make something with soul”.
Following on from a recent series of small oil paintings depicting quintessentially British beach huts glowing in the sun’s first golden rays, Tom is currently focusing his attention on woods, inspired by locations close to home such as Ashton Court and Leigh Woods in Bristol and the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. “Some of my best memories were forged in the woods, either walking with my parents as a child, snowboarding through pine forests as a teenager or mountain biking as an adult. Becoming a professional artist has given me the opportunity to combine everything I love into a single pursuit: painting, cycling and exploring nature.”
In these expressive works, Tom plays with colour and marks to convey the magical, other-worldly atmosphere of woodland and the beauty of the natural world. “I make art for nature lovers so they can bring the woods home,” he explains.
Tom has won multiple awards, including prizes from The Discerning Eye and the coveted Critics Prize from the New English Art Club and his work is held in a host of private and public collections, including Brunel University. Tom’s paintings have been selected for many national open exhibitions including four selections for The Lynne Painter Stainers Prize and three showings at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. In 2014 his painting Self-Portrait with Turquoise Tee was shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award. Recent gallery exhibitions include two solo shows with Panter & Hall in London. His work was exhibited in the joint Gala Fine Art/ArtDog London group show Near and Far at Ballroom Arts in Aldeburgh in August 2022.
