Tom Marshall likes to cycle out to somewhere to draw and paint on the spot, or work from his drawings and imagination in the kitchen at home, making woodcuts, monoprints and other kinds of press-less printmaking. He enjoys variety in the materials he uses and the subjects he chooses, but many of his pictures feature people in the local places he’s drawn them, and often dogs and birds. He loves drawing people and creatures and trying to capture movement and moments.

”I live between Poole and Bournemouth, and because I don’t tend to travel far, that means that I draw things that others might pass by, so that, as well as the nearby beaches, town centres, etc, I also draw in the bus station, the parks, and the insides of local shops!”

Tom has a particular interest in making prints in a non-identical series- using the same piece of wood he might print a figure in blue in one picture, but red in another, so each print is treated as an individual painting and they often grow progressively different.

Tom grew up in Gloucestershire, studied at Stroud School of Art and did fine art at Falmouth College of Arts. Then came 14 years out of art doing entirely different things, before taking it up again in 2013 so that he could look after his kids. ”Drawing has always been the foundation of my work. It was also something that I continued in my time out of art. In part of it, I was a language teacher, so I made worksheets and did cartoons on the classroom whiteboards! I hardly touched colour or painted anything, so it has been great to come back to that and take it in a new direction, and rediscover how much I love making art.”