Tom Farthing is a painter who reimagines figurative painting within a contemporary context, drawing on both personal memory and shared visual experience. He completed his BA at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, in 2005, and went on to gain his MA from Chelsea College of Art in 2013.
Influenced by artists such as Alex Katz, Farthing’s work is characterised by a pared-back visual language and a sensitivity to mood and atmosphere. His subjects often depict familiar scenes—figures, interiors, and everyday moments—that invite recognition while remaining open-ended. Through this approach, he encourages viewers to project their own memories and associations onto the image, creating a dialogue between the personal and the collective.
In 2015, John Martin Gallery presented Farthing’s series Projections, which was inspired by a found collection of Kodachrome slides depicting anonymous family gatherings and portraits. These source images became a springboard for paintings that engage with ideas of memory, loss, and reconstruction, suggesting imagined narratives and alternative versions of the present shaped by the past.
Farthing’s practice also extends to landscape. In 2017, he was artist-in-residence at the NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland, where he produced drawings, watercolours, and oil paintings in response to the surrounding environment. This period of research informed subsequent works developed on his return to London, further expanding his exploration of place, memory, and perception.
