Meet David Thomas
I was born in Cardigan in West Wales and during my early teens my Grandmother encouraged me to sketch the cliffs at Gwbert, Cardigan Island and Cemaes Head all adjacent to her summer house.
That was the last time I undertook any art work. By the age of fourteen my immediate family had left Wales for the very different environment of Helpston, near to Stamford, Lincolnshire. It was the birthplace of John Clare the famous poet. The village contained some of the prettiest thatched buildings in the East Midlands. Somehow, I wasn’t sufficiently inspired to develop the talent my grandmother had insisted I had. Probably like many Welsh people moved from their roots, Hiraeth had settled in without my being aware of it. However, I was very aware that culturally England was very different from West Wales!
Cemaes looking south from Grandmother's summer house
Cardigan island
After leaving school I followed a successful career within Cadbury Schweppes Plc. In just under 18 years I rose to senior levels within the Coca-Cola and Schweppes organisation based in St Albans. In time, thoughts of pursuing a similar career within smaller organisations surfaced. An opportunity back in Wales held the prospect of a more fulfilling career and lifestyle choice. So a return to work on the board of Eagle Brewery Ltd in mid Wales set the path ahead. After a few years the company was purchased by Allied Breweries. After weathering the inevitable career bumps in the road I found myself working for Red Bull GmBh with responsibilities for the national launch of the Red Bull brand in the United Kingdom.
It was an exciting time, with no thoughts of art, apart from the decisions made by our team around the catchy advertising themes including the popular ‘Red Bull Gives you Wings'. After a few years the invitation to move to the new UK HQ in Bermondsey reignited that latent sense of Hiraeth. Wales had won the battle!
I was to finish my career as Managing Director at Performance MasterBatches Ltd (PMB), a colour manufacturing company of considerable reputation based in Brynmawr, South Wales. After a fascinating and enjoyable term managing the vagaries of colour in plastics I finally retired in 2010.
These are the two bookends to my story; my Grandmother’s encouragement ignored at the beginning and the science of colour at the end.
It was my wife, Barbara, who finally encouraged me to get down to business and take some art courses and learn how to be an artist. Ignoring the fact that I had been a slightly different kind of artist in my brewery years!
I was initially drawn to pastels and charcoal and I set out to learn how to exploit these mediums. I am most grateful to local artists Neil Bally, Tessa Waite, and Jantien Powell. Most of my work was completed in either charcoal, pastels or acrylic paint. In 2011 I discovered the Welsh Academy of Art virtually next door and spent the next few years perfecting my charcoal and oil painting techniques in portraiture, life drawing, and landscape. I am especially grateful to Lucy Corbett and Lee Wright at The Academy for their boundless inspiration. At the same time I studied for a Certificate of Art and Design at Aberystwyth University gaining accreditation in 2015
The Artist
Portrait of the Artist by Lucy Corbett