There’s more than meets the eye with artist Tom French’s human skull paintings. Look closely into his artworks and discover the images of couples embracing in the eyes of death and decay.

Hailing from Newcastle, England, the 31-year-old is making his mark in the international art scene with his figurative, realist, abstract and surrealist paintings.

French is best known for his surreal skull paintings and his work has been exhibited at C.A.V.E Gallery in California, Street Anatomy Gallery and Zero Cool Gallery in London, where he had a joint exhibition with Melburnian street artist, Rone.

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What is the narrative meaning behind your skull paintings?

I prefer to leave the narrative element to my skull images somewhat ambiguous. Yes, the characters are caught up in some kind of interaction or relationship, but you only get to glimpse a small snapshot of a larger story. As for what this story is – that’s for you to decide.

Of course, this is simply a reflection of life –  do we ever really know what is happening when we interact?

Consciously, we believe so, but it’s argued that we are subject to unconscious psychological forces – more than we realise – which can be hugely influential over our thoughts and actions.

This phenomena of instinct over reason is a large basis of my dual image pieces. The figures in the paintings are shaped and manipulated into the larger picture (be it a skull or an emotive face), which they are virtually unaware of, and have little control over.

Why are you fascinated with skulls and illusion? 

I believe they both represent things which we are all intrinsically affected by. Skulls are symbolic of death, an unavoidable issue which through our natural instincts we do the best to avoid. In a sense this has as much to do with life as it does with death.

Illusion brings into the spotlight our perception of reality, how the brain views the world – again, universally unavoidable, and fascinating.

You’ve previously stated your favourite medium to work with is charcoal. Why?

It’s one of my favourite mediums, (I also use oil paints a lot these days). I enjoy the strength of images you can create from such simple media as charcoal and paper.

Both are pretty basic natural materials, yet it can be used to create such a wide range of marks and textures, which produce incredibly effective, emotive, raw and beautiful images. With charcoal you work purely with light and shade, which I find both challenging and liberating. 

Is there a specific reason why you mainly use black and white for your skull paintings?

I do love working in monochrome. It has strengths which are difficult to put into words. As touched upon earlier, there’s something about the simplicity of only using light and dark without the distraction and complications of colour, and though I’m by no means minimalist, I like the purity of this.

Colour can be very subjective and therefore has the possibility to be restrictive, and it would be foolish to think that full colour images can give us complete representation, due to our limited perception. So for me, at the moment, I enjoy being free of these issues.

Also, for this skull series, with the elements of narrative, the timeless quality of the monochromatic palette suits, and adds a cinematic feel, enhancing the feeling that the scene is a small part of a whole story.

Where do you find inspiration?

I try to feed my brain with as much creative input as possible – reading, viewing exhibitions and the likes, as well as the randomness of day to day situations. But, to be honest, most of my ‘eureka’ moments come whilst painting.

I think it’s because that’s when I’m most engaged with the work, and also engrossed in it to the point that the brain can wander and reflect. It seems that once I get started with creating something it sparks off some kind of chain reaction.

This does mean I’ll often leave the piece I’m working on to start something more exciting, resulting in many unfinished works, though hopefully this means that it’s the most interesting ones which make it to the end of the process.

What’s next for Tom French?

I’m currently making a few decisions and getting my head around a heap of ideas I’ve had rattling around for the last few weeks/months/years. I know I have the urge to take a slightly different painterly path. You’ll have to watch this space…

Check out Tom’s work on his website & Flickr.

Mandi Santic is a third year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and a staff writer for upstart. You can follow her on Twitter: @candidmandi

Image Source (c) Tom French