Born in Liverpool, England in 1966. Moved to Edinburgh, Scotland in 1973 and attended
Edinburgh College of Art from 1983-1987. Over the years an “often outlandish, always
wayward” career has evolved to include numerous exhibitions, publications, record
sleeves, book jackets and recordings... His paintings sit in private collections the world
over.
DT: “I recall trying to be an illustrator when I left art school... I had thoughts
of doing children's books and the like... I used buy a train ticket to London and drag a
portfolio of work around endless publishing houses in the pissing rain... Y'know trying to
meet with so-and-so art-director... hoping to get my work into magazines, design agencies,
that kind of stuff... Quite horrible and truly depressing memories... By and large everyone
hated the artwork... It was resolutely un-commercial, impenetrably dark, tortured and
insular... it showed no sense of any marketability whatsoever. Depending heavily on maudlin
introspection, it was art-as-catharsis... And I REALLY liked that about my work... I thought
that was its strength ... Unintentionally I had entered a side street, and then I stumbled
along the painfully rocky and excruciatingly long road of 'art as personal vision'... if
indeed it is any kind of road at all...
Putting aside all thoughts of markets and commerce, I simply paint pictures that come to
me... I see my art as being staunchly traditional, typically protestant and surprisingly /
unnervingly moral... I welcome basic, innocent elements; good intentions, naivety of vision,
inevitable pollution of ideas from exposure to far too much mass media, limits of personal
process etc... These are essential parts of any interesting struggle... I'm interested in
the romantic notion of authenticity and feeling... I enjoy my capacity to love and hate in
equal measure, and I'm forever inspired by those vast cosmological things that render all
human endeavour tiny in comparison...”
Now a much-collected artist, Deryk Thomas's paintings are finally getting the 'official'
treatment thanks to various online endeavours.
Deryk Thomas continues to draw and paint to commission. He also works with mentally
disordered offenders as a state-registered forensic Art Psychotherapist.
Deryk currently lives in Buckinghamshire, England and since 2001 has been a half of the
outré-electronic outfit Human Greed, with Scottish writer Michael Begg.
Related Links
http://www.derykthomas.com
http://www.omnempathy.com
