New solo exhibition is about "trying to bottle the goodness of Glyndebourne”

His exhibition at Glyndebourne’s Gallery 94 will feature new Glyndebourne-inspired works under the title The Unseen Everything.

“I think the really unique thing about the place is that you have got this unique union of London and the country. There is an energy about it, bringing together international standard in everything from set designs to costume makers to actors to musicians to singers. All of it is world class, but the point is that it has been brought into the country, into the middle of nowhere.

“I was there at a photo shoot a couple of days ago and the photographer commented how silent the whole place was. I mean really silent. You couldn’t hear any urban noise at all. It was proper silence. We were standing in the field where the picnickers look out onto and all you could hear was nature but you were looking at world class sculpture in the garden.

“And that’s the thing,” says Tom, an established Sussex painter with a studio in central Lewes.

“You can be standing there and you will hear this amazing aria wafting down the lawn. It’s like this dreamlike place for any creative to be. You go there to be restored and be healed and be inspired. Five minutes there and I feel like I want to be an artist again. It just makes me want to paint again.

“The life of a full-time artist is really quite draining. The fact is that you have to be thinking about framers and couriers and deadlines. There is this idea that you potter around and get inspiration but also you’ve got to do all the marketing and all the social media which is huge these days, and it is all exhausting and all of that takes you away from your actual work. I could be digging holes for a living obviously but when you are trying to be creative as an artist there is also a lot of things that you have to do that almost kills that artistic side.

“You get a gallery asking you for images or what the title of your exhibition is and you just think I don’t know! But as soon as you get to Glyndebourne, you feel healed and restored. There is something so great about somewhere where everybody is creative, and I don’t know if it is in their training but they just treat you so well. You go there and you get pure peace and pure tranquilly.

“I have been connected with Glyndebourne for seven years doing festival group shows. This is the first time I have been offered a solo show which is really amazing and exciting just given the heritage there. You’ve got all these amazing creatives turning up in this place just right on my doorstep.

“I went to Glyndebourne on work experience when I was 16 and I wanted to be a set designer. I didn’t do pure art A Level.

“I did the first A Level in stage set design. I went there for the work experience and I just didn’t believe it.

“You go backstage and you see all this enormous machinery. I was totally inspired there. I think for most people there is just something about going backstage in any theatre that is really really exciting and you never forget it. And for me that’s still one of the big buzzes of being there.

“There is also a huge theme of tapping into childhood experiences in the show. I think in lockdown I found myself being quite nostalgic of all the things that we had lost.

“You start going back to things that you used to have and then you start going further back.

“I started looking at things from a happier time and often for people that happiest time is as a child. My work is about bringing comfort.

“These are paintings that are meant to heal people and help people. It is about trying to bottle the goodness of Glyndebourne.”

The Unseen Everything runs from February 21-March 31.

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