{"id":12,"date":"2010-10-08T09:51:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T09:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrepinto.co.uk\/tom"},"modified":"2023-06-07T19:53:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T18:53:51","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/?page_id=12","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- wp-jquery-lightbox, a WordPress plugin by ulfben --> \n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/stevietom1.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[12]\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11 alignleft\" title=\"Tom Neil\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/stevietom1-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Neil\" width=\"86\" height=\"126\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/stevietom1-204x300.jpg 204w, http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/stevietom1.jpg 689w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 86px) 100vw, 86px\" \/><\/a>Although Tom Neil has virtually no art training, he has painted and drawn for as long as he can remember.\u00a0 At the age of eight he discovered reproductions of Dali\u2019s \u201cThe Persistence of Memory\u201d and Picasso\u2019s \u201cGuernica\u201d and some of that inspiration still shows in his current work.\u00a0 By the age of seventeen, Neil had become a rebellious teenager for whom school had nothing to offer.\u00a0 Further education would have to wait until later.\u00a0 Meanwhile, he was off round the world and spent six years abroad visiting France, Italy, \u00a0Spain, and Portugal, Norway, Sweden and the USA.<\/p>\n<p>By the age of twenty four, Neil was back in Scotland and began to try to realise his intention to take up some sort of career in the arts.\u00a0 Since then, he has studied in various Colleges catching up on his highers, learning graphic design, beginning social science and switching to multi-media computing.\u00a0 This alternated with further travel and research trips to the Middle East, Europe and Canada, and currently spends a lot of time in Southern Spain.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #00ffff;\">NEXT TRIP:\u00a0 SOUTHERN SPAIN \/ AMSTERDAM, AUTUMN 2023<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, he has gradually identified painting as his true vocation and is now concentrating his efforts in that direction.\u00a0 He has homed in on a visual format that allows him the scope to explore and develop key ideas.\u00a0 His work has a bold freedom of expression, which demands an ever-expanding technique.\u00a0 His paintings contain central narrative themes plus added symbolic references, all painted with arresting directness and imagination.\u00a0 He often manages to create a dream-like theatrical effect, with a central image such as a vivid portrait floating in front of a highly worked textural backdrop.\u00a0 These paintings do not immediately reveal their meaning but invite contemplation.<\/p>\n<p>Like other contemporary Glasgow artists (Campbell and Wiszneiwski in particular), Neil uses a child-like language in a sophisticated way.\u00a0 Dynamic gestural brushwork is found alongside neatly drawn figurative sections.\u00a0 Colour can be natural or totally abstract.\u00a0 Symbols recur such as crucifixes but these are more political than historical references suggesting the universal theme of persecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n<!-- wp-jquery-lightbox, a WordPress plugin by ulfben --> \n<p>Although Tom Neil has virtually no art training, he has painted and drawn for as long as he can remember.\u00a0 At the age of eight he discovered reproductions of Dali\u2019s \u201cThe Persistence of Memory\u201d and Picasso\u2019s \u201cGuernica\u201d and some of that inspiration still shows in his current work.\u00a0 By the age of seventeen, Neil had [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-nocomment.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomneil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}