Tom's draughtsmanship and intellectual rigour were the result of a traditional academic training at Manchester School of Art, followed by post-graduate study at the Slade such as study for 'The Bar Parlour' 1953. During these early years he won numerous awards, with two major scholarships providing the opportunity to work and study in Italy and France. These trips enabled him to experience at close hand the work of the French modernists including Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne such as Massignano.
From 1953 to 1963 Tom became Assistant Director of the Welsh Arts Council. During his time in Wales a different form of landscape painting evolved resulting in a series of wonderful freely abstracted landscape paintings such as Hammerhead in 1964.
A move to Reading University heralded another change in his painting. From the early 70's his work became more formalist through his engagement with a group called 'Systems', a collective led by the painter and constructivist Malcolm Hughes. Perhaps this is not surprising, as his early training in architecture enabled him to identify with their passion for structure, architectural spaces, and grids such as Network' 1972.
In his 2005 book 'Helford - A River and some landscapes', he confronts the many twists and turns in a prolific career: "throughout my work abstraction and realism have...
After finishing at Falmouth School of Art he continued to lecture for NADFAS and was prolific in painting. Whilst his passion was the Helford River which he looked out on every day he and Pat did what they loved - travel! They visited many countries during this time including Italy, Australia, Dubai, Oman and Guernsey where Tom would paint and from this many exhibitions were held in the countries that he had painted.
Toms work concentrated mainly on the Helford with trips to Venice and France along with an exhibition of the Venice works at the Chelsea Arts Club. In 2002 he published Catching the Wave which brought the story covered in the two previous books, The Shining Sands and Painting the warmth of the Sun, up to date and into the twenty first century. The final book Helford - A River and Some Landscapes was published in 2005 and revealed the influences of his work which were captured on his paintings of the Helford River.
In 2007 Tom and Pat moved up the hill to the hamlet of Treviades still close...