Creative Parents — Tom Adair
In our latest piece on Creative Parents, Melbourne-based artist Tom Adair shares how he balances a successful (and very busy!) art practice and a newborn baby.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson | Photography: Tom Adair
‘It wasn’t until I had an opportunity to have my first solo show which sold-out that I even considered a career in art. I always just did it because I loved it, never for money, but I quickly had to decide if I wanted to pursue art or my career as the demand for my artwork had turned up a few notches and I was really enjoying producing work.’ Photo: Tom Adair
Melbourne-based artist Tom Adair employs the airbrush in his practice to create an effect that oscillates between the real and the digital. Tom lives in Richmond, VIC, with his wife Nikki and five-month-old Arkley — named after Tom’s favourite artist Howard Arkley who first inspired him to pick up the airbrush. His subjects depict architecture and landscapes, drawing on our obsession with technology, in dots created by the medium.
‘By chance, one day there were some half-tone dots reflecting on a canvas I had in a shared studio, and I realised I could paint the dots using an airbrush,’ he says. ‘I developed a technique using four colour CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) that is painted in layers to produce a full colour rendering when the palette is carefully airbrushed by hand in a dot-by-dot technique– not dissimilar to the moiré dots you would see in a magazine under a microscope.’
With a career in fashion and working with Jardan furniture, Tom hasn't looked back since his first exhibition in 2018. ‘It has changed the way I look and interpret the world; I feel more grounded, and it has allowed me space to focus on doing more of what I enjoy and cutting out the noise and pressures of my commercial career,’ he reflects.
Once he was committed to his art, Tom employed an art critic to understand his paintings better, working on discovering his own artistic framework. ‘Since then, I have focused more on exploring ideas that interest me in the world like facades, appearances, digital environments and how our thirst for technology is shaping us.’
The family have been living in Richmond since 2010, in a house renovated in 2018 by Fiona Lynch — providing a clean and minimal base that allows them to inject their personality through art and design. ‘Luckily, as an artist, I have had the pleasure of swapping some works with fellow artists friends, and these pieces are special to me as they signify some of my closest friendships. We have work from Dion Horstmans, Kane Alexander, Richard Blackwell, Toby Pola, Michael Staniak, and Simon Davidson,’ says Tom.
‘Since Arkley (our son) came along, I have wondered if he will be artistic. I know I’d love him to be creative, and I have already had ideas about collaborating with him on paintings as soon as he can make marks. I have my own large studio in Richmond, and it’s a great environment for him to experiment in if he is interested but not something I’ll force on him – I think kids (and adults, for that matter) need to follow their passion and do what they truly love.’
‘In November 2020 my work was photographed and published on the cover of Good Weekend, I was in awe, I didn’t want to believe it until I actually physically saw it in print – it was very cool. This type of recognition was great for my self-confidence as an emerging artist to keep doing what I was doing,’ says Tom Adair. Pictured: Daily Escape, 2020. Photo: Tom Adair
‘I’ve recently developed a new style of painting that was shown at my latest solo show that I plan on developing into my next series. I have dubbed these paintings soft-edges for now as they take my favourite ‘moments of softness’ from Howard Arkley’s overspray lines to create paintings that have no distinguishable edges, blurred and resembling an image still ‘loading’ on a digital screen,’ says Tom Adair. Photo: Tom Adair
“A whole new world is opened to you when you bring a baby into the world, and I can only imagine this will continue to evolve as Arkley gets older and our relationship develops – it’s amazing and I’m really excited to slowly develop and document my changing thoughts and observations about the world through my practice.”
‘Work time is now more focused as I don’t have the luxury of time that being a non-parent allowed. Being time-poor with family commitments makes identifying what is and isn’t important much easier. It’s a reallocation of my time and I get much more joy from spending time that was wasted time fluffing about now spent at home bonding and growing as a family.’ Photo: Tom Adair
Recently, Tom found a studio closer to home, which has cut down his commute and means he is nearby if Nikki needs help at home. This studio also promises a bigger space to work and exhibit (140sqm!), exploring a more experimental and conceptual approach and allowing him to connect and build relationships with other artists and creatives. Showing sporadically, the gallery is named Thought Forms and launching with group exhibition Subparallel on September 29th, 2022.
It joins his list of highlights that span a solo show in Miami during Art Basel in 2019 after being picked up by a Melbourne gallery; Chromatones, his March 2020 show that launched his CMYK paintings; his painting making the cover of Good Weekend; and his last solo exhibition at Nanda\Hobbs, New Romantics.
With all these accomplishments and milestones, Tom reveals a period of adjustment balancing his creativity with a baby. ‘Between sleep deprivation and squeezing in broken periods of work, it’s hard to find consistency, but it gets easier as you become comfortable with routines and new responsibilities,’ he adds.
Luckily, being a self-employed artist meant Tom could take three months off after Arkley was born. But Arkley is a true artist baby, visiting exhibitions from two weeks old. ‘It’s not easy, there were so many times it would have been easier to stay at home, but we forced ourselves to go out and take him with us, and we’re so thankful we did because now going out is super chill and we don’t second guess it,’ says Tom.
‘I guess my approach is to just continue to work where you can, don’t drop your practice all together, take notes while you can’t work so you can follow up on ideas when you do have time to work,’ Tom continues. ‘I have also found reading and research to be beneficial while I’ve been out of the studio; I’m doing some of the things that I’ve had on my mind to do for a while but never had the chance because I’m too busy painting.’
This focus is joined by a new drive to get work done when possible, the luxury of spare time evaporating! But also to be more particular with the work he takes on—working out what projects take priority over critical family time. When he’s home, heading to the studio between 10am-4pm, Tom does what he can make up for to make life as easy as possible for Nikki.
With Tom’s art quite suitable for a baby, the high contrast colours and shapes creating intrigue for little eyes, the artist shares that having Arkley has given him a new worldview on innocence and creativity. ‘I am excited to see the world again through a new lens of the next generation,’ Tom concludes. ‘I’m sure he will teach me almost as much as I teach him. I’m excited to learn about new technologies as he grows up, experiencing and integrating with the tech over the next 20 years is going to be wild – unimaginable!’