Interview with Tom G H Adams by Caroline Lamb – Abstract Mixed Media Artist – over the phone – 22nd August 2025
It certainly wasn’t the perfect run-up to my first ever experience interviewing a member of the Eden Valley Artistic Network, as both myself and artist Tom G H Adams managed to come down with illnesses ahead of our first attempt!
However, we’ve both rallied - and now, after rescheduling a week or so later, we manage to catch up via phone (our busy schedules forcing us to keep the interview remote).
Tom is warm, good-humoured and open, and I find our conversation fascinating. I’d taken a look at some of his work ahead of time, of course. To my untrained eye, many of his pieces feel tantalisingly complex and almost confronting at first glance. They're an adventure, offering you something different with each revisit. The longer you explore them, the more each element or area reveals itself, inviting your mind to gradually unpack the overall work.
Towards the start of the interview, Tom acknowledges that he really doesn’t specialise in one particular “thing”. His work is eclectic and generally abstract rather than representational. It’s unlikely that you’ll find him drawing a picture of a landscape that you would recognise, or an animal, figure or portrait.
Instead, he experiments with mixed media - including wood or found objects - as well as collage and painting with acrylics. On occasion, his work features digital elements mixed in with the physical. The process is an experimental, exploratory one.
However, Tom accepts that this nonspecific, reactive approach is something of a double-edged sword, saying it can be a challenge if you want to get “serious” about selling your work “because a gallery owner or whatever will want, perhaps, a theme - or that you settle on one thing. [Or you may wish to] build up a following in one discipline… that's not me. So, I guess I’m destined never to sell a great deal of my work - but who cares, you know?”
Tom has never liked boundaries. When he comes across a wall, he has the impulse to break through it.
As we turn our attention to Tom’s pieces themselves, he explains that he feels the best way to describe them would be “intuitive”. Unlike some creatives (including myself), Tom has never had a problem with the blank canvas. “I just throw myself in, start - and usually something comes out of it. The risk element of that is that it could just turn out to be rubbish or mud or something. But more often than not, it does lead somewhere.”
He has a strong interest in shapes and contours and colours, how they fit together and affect each other - hence his love of collage. As Tom puts it “the seemingly throw-away bit of fodder. that you produce when doing something… when you put it with something else, it suddenly comes into its own. I like the possibilities.”
Tom’s influences include “a whole spray of things”. He draws from his many interests in music, dark fantasy and horror fiction, politics and environmentalism. A bigger piece of his, completed recently, is called “Dividing Lines”. What started off as another one of his intuitive processes - experimenting with shapes in paint that he had picked up from the local recycling center - became a response to the current fractious state of global politics. An observer mentioned to him that an area of the piece was reminiscent of the colours of the Ukrainian flag, with other parts calling to mind Palestine and Gaza. This kick-started an entire process of colour and expression and shapes exploring the political act of drawing lines that are sometimes real, sometimes imagined.
As we continue to talk, I learned that - like many great artists - Tom draws inspiration from every corner of the creative world and far beyond. “Only a few short years ago, I was more into writing fiction than I was into art,” he says. “Before that, I was more into music. It's like I've gone on a journey through music, through writing fictional literature, through to this art - and the whole thing just tends to meld together.”
Tom might find influence in a song lyric or the feel of a piece of music, or a character that he has written about in the past. He references filmmaker Clive Barker of Hellraiser fame, who now chiefly produces work within the “fine art” sphere - yet one can clearly see the connection with his earlier creations: a line that can be traced back over decades.
He also discusses Jean Giroux (“Moebius”), whose almost cartoonish style is particularly appealing, and whom Tom very much admires. He often experiments by producing fantasy images in the style of Moebius, which he then incorporates into a collage that mixes in other influences.
These acts of homage have - at times - given rise to a slight concern on Tom’s part. Did this simply count as “copying”? However, he notes “then someone mentioned to me that the great artists - back to Da Vinci and what have you - they usually studied under a master artist as an apprentice, learning their techniques and even copying and reproducing parts that would go onto a mural. So it makes me feel a bit better that you can be influenced by something as long as you take it to a new place.”
As my background is in theatre, I strongly recognise and appreciate this philosophy, so I mention to Tom that playwright Simon Stephens recommends that other writers “read like a thief” - going to the theatre to metaphorically “steal”. Of course, this isn’t advocacy for plagiarism, but rather a prompt to observe the approaches, techniques and angles of other creatives which can then serve as a launchpad for one’s own artistic endeavours - offering a new perspective and adding further weapons to one’s arsenal.
Tom agrees, referencing the quote often attributed to Picasso: “good artists copy, great artists steal” - appreciating in turn that it isn't meant to encourage forgery, but simply to show that an artist can be “so heavily influenced by [another’s work] that it inspires you to use it as a springboard to achieve something else”.
I asked Tom what started it all. What prompted his shift in creative output and led him to produce the bold and fascinating pieces that you can often see on display in his local Gallery North West in Brampton and in a range of other exhibitions across the region (as well as on EVAN’s own website)?
After considering, Tom explains: “It was probably that a friend invited me to go along to the Brampton Art Group, which is not an ‘art class’ - it's just people who come together, do their work, talk to each other, socialise and just sort of mutually encourage each other. I went along to that and just messed around a bit, and then someone suggested: ‘well, we've got this exhibition space coming up at the local cafe. Do you want to put in a piece?’”
Tom says that his instinctive response was to think “No, absolutely not! I've got nothing worthy, right?”
However, a sketch of Tom’s grandson was picked out as being of particular interest, and this opened up the idea in his mind that “maybe I can do this - and maybe, you know, it's worth other people looking at.”
When asked about his greatest challenge to date, Tom’s response is all too familiar: “imposter syndrome”. “You reach that point where you think, well, I could just say - like Oscar Wilde - ‘I am a verb, not a noun’, or I could just say yeah, I am an artist, because that's what I'm doing a lot of the time. So why not? There's always that voice at the back of your head saying ‘it is not worthy. What do you think you're doing? Lay off the paintbrush, go and do something else’. I would say it's that mental block that sometimes comes in, which you just have to find different strategies to overcome”.
We go on then to chat about the dangers of measuring oneself against “old masters” and other creatives that the world has placed on a pedestal, with Tom acknowledging the pointless exercise of “comparing myself with that idealised version of who I want to be… That can be a bit self-defeating, because, of course, you never get there.”
We discuss the need to lean into one’s individuality in order to achieve a real sense of creative success, rather than trying to match the “greats” who have come before. Naturally, as it does almost ubiquitously within conversations of this kind, David Bowie’s name comes up; not only as a great exemplar of this kind of attitude, but also as a master of reinvention.
Tom says “David Bowie is a case study in all sorts of aspects… he evolved and came up with these characters, like Aladdin Sane, then moved on to his 80s work, which had a different character in Ashes to Ashes and so on. There's ‘progressive music’, but there's also being a ‘progressive artist’, in that you don't stand still at any one point in time. Joni Mitchell's another, from the acoustic stuff to forays into jazz; it made her a much more interesting artist as a result, in my view.”
I ask what he thinks might be the future of his work. What sort of trajectory does Tom think he may be on? Her answers that he “doesn’t know from day to day or week to week. Sometimes I'm digging around in boxes of material and I find - ‘oh, I got that driftwood two years ago; I haven't done anything with it. I might actually just take that and build that into a 3D piece of work!”
He also mentions that he finds a lot of content on YouTube that sparks his imagination, with a particular channel that he is following at the moment showcasing the process of going over collage pieces with a mix of glaze and acrylics to create shadows for an almost 3D effect. Tom says “I'm sort of champing at the bit to do that as the next thing - but I’m likely to invest a week or two and then I might hop off into something else!”
Our conversation then veers off into the pressures of producing a large enough body of work to meet the demands of the numerous fantastic exhibition opportunities across the region. “I'd rather sort of just shrink back and not to worry too much about exhibiting or selling work or getting stuff up on a website, just to see what happens and what comes out. That's where I'm really in my happy place, without too much pressure on”, he says. He appreciates that some people thrive in that kind of environment, though. “It just depends on your individual makeup”.
Tom joined EVAN this year with the initial purpose of getting involved in the annual Open Studios and Art Trail - but he has found himself without the capacity to take part this time around. However, the situation has presented him with new opportunities to explore the work of other excellent local artists. He says he’ll be heading down to see the exhibits in Eamont Bridge Village Hall that form part of this year’s trail, to newly acquaint himself with the creatives displaying their work there.
It is, of course, early days for Tom as an EVAN member. He says that he appreciates how, much like the artistic community in his local area, Brampton, EVAN doesn’t just incorporate a diverse variety of artists in a “traditional” sense, but also includes musical performers and all kinds of other creatives. Interacting with individuals from such a range of backgrounds gives rise to new and interesting links.
He’s had a guitar built for him by member Neil McHardy, for example, and is also very interested in the Artistic Shepherd’s Hut - ASH - a portable structure commissioned by EVAN that is designed to serve as an artist’s studio, a nature hide, a stage for public performance and more.
“I think sometimes, just being part of a group of people - you forge connections that actually lead to something. I think that's the value of it. It is a community; a community of people and a community of creatives who can inspire you and motivate you.”
Tom mentions that another benefit of the network is the opportunity to enjoy regular events featuring other EVAN members. He references the recent “Craftsmen at the Priory” exhibition at the stunning Dacre Hall at Lanercost Priory, where, on entering “You suddenly recognise the work of people you know, then other people you weren't aware of. So you pick up their card - and then you come across them again, recognize what they're doing… and you might then go on to be inspired by them.”
He also recalls that, at the same event a few years ago, he discovered the work of artist Daniel Ibbotson, who he has since got to know quite well - a connection that further encouraged his journey as an artist, with Daniel initially inviting him to display work in a pop-up exhibition and their interactions continuing from there.
Tom regularly volunteers at the Gallery Northwest in Brampton alongside other EVAN members, including Stuart Fraser, and local creatives like Annie Stride. “It's nice to just meet up with them and help them in some of the open events that they have… learning about how to put paintings on walls in a way that's pleasing to the eye and so on. Stuart's actually featuring in the EVAN Art Trail as well. So, again, there's the value of EVAN - that it creates an opportunity for me to deliberately go around and see his home studio and the work he produces and what influences him.”
In fact, as our interview draws to a close and I ask Tom if there’s anything he has coming up that he would particularly like to share with readers, he mentions that Daniel Ibbotson has invited him to submit some of his work to an exhibition run by Proseed Collective at Intro in Carlisle in mid-to-late September - an event that sounds particularly engaging!
It’s been a real pleasure to spend time with Tom, to chat about his creative process and his influences. As a creative whose activities take place firmly in the field of live art and performance, I found it particularly interesting that we had a great deal in common when the conversation turned to the concept of inspiration and influence.
We agreed that, whatever artistic field one happens to occupy, one’s work will become ever richer and more meaningful upon stepping further outside of one’s current sphere of experience to take in elements of the wider world. Our discussions on individuality and artistic identity also held a lot of meaning for me.
I hope that Tom’s future work continues to be as eclectic, boundariless and experimental as it is today - if not even more so - and that his influences remain entirely unrestricted!