Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Blood.
Hi Tom, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Creating art has always been a part of me going back to my grade school days. I simply love to create.
In high school, I was offered two different art scholarships, but instead decided to pursue a career creating ads. So I majored in journalism with an advertising emphasis at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
I had a great career in advertising, starting as a junior copywriter and then rising through the ranks, eventually becoming a Creative Director for several St. Louis-based ad agencies.
Whether it was a print ad, tv commercial, outdoor board, radio spot – whatever – I looked at each assignment as the opportunity to do my best work ever.
Along the way, I used my creative skills – both as a writer and as an artist.
I would often sketch out my own storyboards and oftentimes, print or outdoor ads – though I learned over time to focus on the idea and let the art directors and designers do their own thing.
I always loved to paint – but never really pursued that route until 1989, when I was given an airbrush for Christmas. I bought a book on how to airbrush and immediately began painting on large canvasses. I literally had no idea what exactly I was doing – but I was having fun and quickly discovered the combination of using an airbrush as well as traditional brush work was a good combo for me.
In 1990, I discovered the works of Rene Magritte and I was hooked. When I thought of surrealism, I always thought of Salvador Dali. But Magritte’s works were so different than what Dali pursued. Magritte painted ideas. He painted the impossible. His works featured stunning visuals – giant, floating rocks; night and day in the same painting; a locomotive blowing smoke, emerging from a fireplace. What a brilliant mind – combined with a mastery of the paint brush.
I was absolutely inspired and began to try and explore many of the same ideas that he did in my own, weird way.
In 1992, I decided to pursue having my work exhibited in a gallery and went about contacting galleries here in St. Louis, with no idea what protocols I should have been following. Most turned me aside, but one gallery gave me a shot and in 1993, I had my first show of my paintings at The Creative Gallery on the edge of Clayton, Missouri.
I sold four paintings at that show – which began a series of shows that I had there, always with good success.
When our third child was born, we converted my painting studio into a downstairs bedroom. I no longer had a place to paint and for almost seventeen years, I didn’t. I was content with being a dad, coaching, advancing my ad career and reading about a book every two weeks.
For Father’s Day in 2014, our oldest son gave me two small canvasses and some paint and challenged me to paint again.
“You’re too good of an artist not to paint,” he told me.
I had always worked on larger canvasses. The small canvasses he gave me were intimidating. I had no idea what to paint and almost two months went by without a single brushstroke.
Ultimately, I decided I needed to do something – anything. So while on a walk before my daughter’s softball game began, I noticed a ladder leaning against a house.
“I’ll paint that,” I decided.
But when I sketched it out on the small canvas, I realized how uninspiring it was. So I removed the house and painted a leaning ladder, set against the sky in a field of green. It was poorly done, crude in its execution.
But it was enough that I decided to do another painting on the other smaller canvas – which turned out equally crude in execution, but conceptually – well, it wasn’t too bad.
So I went out and bought another slightly bigger canvas.
And that got me going again – and this June, will mark the 10th anniversary of me getting that canvas from my son.
I am so grateful he gave me that nudge.
My ongoing goal is to continue to get better as an artist. I’ve always had some rather striking ideas, but from an execution standpoint, they weren’t always what they could be. I’m working on that.
I have now sold paintings on four different continents and in 12 different countries.
In July, I should go past more than one million views of my paintings.
And each new painting is a chance to create my best work yet.
I am grateful for each and every opportunity I get!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Surrealism is not for everyone. In fact, it’s not for most people! That is a simple buying fact that I have learned.
People always seem to love my work.
Yet it’s not purchased very often. They just can’t imagine having a painting of a man in a bowler hat, standing chest deep in water on their wall. Or, of an old war ship, sailing through the clouds. Or, of a woman in yellow dress, standing in a field of yellow flowers, only her head is a giant rose.
Each one of the above mentioned paintings are among my favorites and they look absolutely stunning hanging on my walls.
Yet there hasn’t been a sliver of interest in purchasing any of these originals (though I have sold prints of each one).
I have come to realize that I can’t paint hoping to sell what I do. I simply paint because I need to.
It’s a part of me now and I truly love the process.
I am excited to try and continue to get better as an artist. My 200th painting is now less than 10 away!
For a person who spent most of his career creating advertising and marketing, I still haven’t been able to crack the code on how to sell my work.
Just like in advertising, creating breakthrough work is the fun part. Selling it is the challenge!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I paint ideas. I love to paint the impossible, or at least, the highly improbable. With my work, you can almost always tell what’s going on, you just don’t necessarily know why. My paintings will make you think and quite often, bring a smile to your face. I am heavily influenced by my all-time favorite artist, Rene Magritte, and I have explored many of his concepts while searching to develop a look and style that is uniquely my own.
My painting process is somewhat tedious as I still mask off key areas that are being painted, going back to the techniques I used when learning how to airbrush. These days, I am strictly an acrylic artist, but I love the tight lines you can get and the differentiation between various items that you get when you mask off.
There aren’t many other surrealists in the St. Louis area and few that create the whimsical painting style that I have developed.
I guess as far as being proud of something, I’m quite proud of the fact that I will soon eclipse more than 1 million views of my work – not bad for someone who has a degree in journalism and wrote for a living!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I will never stop trying to get better as an artist. That means paying attention to brush work, and zeroing in on the details that takes a painting to the next level. I have always had an abundance of ideas. Executing those ideas so that the brush strokes never get in the way of the core idea is always one of my goals. I don’t want the viewer to even think about the execution of the painting, I want the viewer’s reaction to be entirely based upon the power of the idea I’m trying to convey. Persistence is another trait that has helped with my success.
I never worry about sales. My only focus is to continue to create. And If I keep doing that, results will come.
Pricing:
- “Rose”, 30″ x 40″, $2800
- “No Man Is An Island” 30″ x 40″, $3000
- “Butterfly Dreams” 30″ x 40″, $2200
- “Sky Sailing” 36″ x 48″, $3200
- “For the Love of Love”, 30″ x 40″, $2400
- “She Is The Night” and “He Is The Night” 24″ x 30″, $900 each
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tombloodart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomblood_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TBloodman/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thblood/
- Twitter: https://x.com/tomblood_art
- Other: https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/tom-blood-20543?ref=ts
