Biography & Exhibitions

Tom Voyce

British b. 1989

Tom Voyce (b. 1989) is a British painter whose subject matter comprises of a variety of different themes such as interiors and semi abstracted landscapes, often within the notion of place and transit.

 The artworks consistently demonstrate an interest in the formal elements of composition: structure, perspective, shape, and light. The strength in these pieces lies not in their faithful depiction of a landscape, but in their suggestion of a sense of place, of being present within a particular space at a particular moment.

Artist Statement

Tom Voyce (born 1989) is an artist and art teacher currently based in the United Kingdom. Trained in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University in Wales, Tom gained his bachelor’s degree in 2011- specialising in drawing and painting. He completed a Master’s degree shortly afterwards allowing him to refine his practice while working and teaching in highier education. This also included a visit to China in 2014 where he taught life drawing and painting techniques.

In 2017 Tom participated on Sky Arts Landscape artist of the year, where his powerful and distinctive landscapes thrilled the judges. He went on to win the competition and claim the prize of a £10,000 commission from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, where he was required to paint the view from the legendary playwright Noel Coward’s home in Jamaica.

Since then, Tom has gone on to produce a whole series of artworks based on his visit to Jamaica, as well as continuing to further his own practice through still life’s, interiors and various other semi abstract landscapes that are fundamental to his work. In late 2018 Tom embarked on a body of work inspired by his favourite subject matter; places of transit. This, combined with a number of residencies, demonstrations and talks in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, all combined to provide a rich and vivid series of artworks that continue to be developed.

Tom is an artist whose work sits firmly within a vast art historical tradition. Heavily influenced by 20th Century American abstraction, his work treads a tightrope between figuration and abstraction and takes particular inspiration from the work of Richard Diebenkorn, who trod a similar path through his work. It is a tension between a figuration and abstraction in Toms work, often unresolved, that gives his work the very energy, dynamism and vibrancy that make the paintings so successful. His language is one of abstract concerns (shape, dimension, tone, colour, mark etc) balanced with the presence of organic forms, where landscape provides a rationale or pattern which informs his compositions.

To call Tom a landscape painter then, does perhaps not do justice to the wider concerns present within his work. The subject at hand here is not landscape itself, but rather the components of such that make up our perception and experience of a place; light, tone, shadow, colour. What we are offered through these paintings are accounts of fleeting moments within a landscape; the fall of light on a building, or the shadows cast by a motorway flyover. The strength in these pieces lies not in their faithful depiction of a landscape, but in their suggestion of a sense of place, of being present within a particular space at a particular moment.

Tom makes his paintings by working very quickly on a whole series at the same time. Often on a small scale, the works complement each other and work together to allow a vibrancy and relationship to develop. As a result, one painting can often be completed within hours. He paints in oils on gesso primed boards which dry quickly allowing him to build-up layers through colour and mark. His tools include the traditional variations of filbert paint brushes- but also his ‘pebble’- a painting wedge that allows for paint to be moved around and for an underlying structure to be developed throughout the painting. He likes the ‘history’ of the artwork to remain upon viewing which this tool allows for.

His subject matter comprises of a variety of different themes but his compositions consistently demonstrate his interest in the formal elements of composition: structure, perspective, shape and light. Places of transit such as airports, railway stations, roads and bridges also remain a favourite theme.

Tom has exhibited widely including the FBA Futures Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, ‘Graduate’ at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre, and more recently he has had sell out solo shows in the UK and New Zealand with another planned in August/ September 2019 at The Fletchergate Gallery in Nottingham. Tom is also involved in the planning of a group show in London in September 2019, and plans to show in Sydney, Australia during mid-2020 .

Tom is represented by The Fletchergate Gallery, Nottingham, Northern Makes Gallery in Manchester, and The Artist Room Gallery in Dunedin, New Zealand.