Tom Caley
Drawing and painting are at the centre of my work, which often features skies and figures, and sometimes animals. It's all about the response to something seen, usually from life, and since I value spontaneity, I like to leave mistakes and revisions detectable in the finished piece. Colour and line are important, and are exploited with as little conscious thought as befits the intention, the mood, the starting point, and the unfolding result. I enjoy painting multifaceted things—boxes, footballs, eggshells even—as well as panel and paper. The enigma of an implied space that is seen incongruously from multiple viewpoints—as on, say, the six faces of a cube, is of particular appeal to me. It seems that exciting results can come of intense study that is subsequently forgotten in the interests of marshalling sensitivity, vigour, and passion in a spirit or improvisation. Study of many things has been very helpful to me: oriental calligraphy; colour science; drafting, and life drawing I have treated as a musician might treat scales and arpeggios—valuable but not music. Having a poor visual memory has kept figurative work alive for me. The world as I see it is a constant source of surprise and fascination.
