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Thomas Hoyle
UNITED STATES
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"My work is about painting as much as I know."
He paints things he finds on the internet; he looks for things that have personality or character to them. He likes when the pictures are poor quality, as they have a mood to them. He finds references at online auctions or social media photos taken by phone cameras. Phone cameras generate photographs using software, creating ideal photos but generally flattening subjects. Sometimes the photos of a subject were taken on a gray day. These are really useful qualities, and he uses them to depict how he feels. He chooses things that he finds and connects with; it can be a taco or a salamander.
The Dude | Oil
NFS
I was focused on portraits in a series of drawings and paintings using sfumato. I was depicting famous people, and Jeff Bridge's portrayal of the "Dude" became something that caught my interest. I painted this painting using thin layers, allowing the underpainting to show in various areas. I was able to use a wide range of colors in the sweater, and the brush work has a nice rhythm. The warm background, Jeff Bridges, and the sweater seem to take you somewhere familiar.
Then he record it in his way, how my eyes processed the experience and the signals traveled to the brain. Like a tradesman, he works, and his language is quiet, so the viewers will need to look deeper. Look closely at the painting so you can see why he chose those colors or brush strokes. Stand back and see the simple composition. He identifies with these paintings as they reflect my interest in the subject. He sees something he can talk about with his brushes.
1970 | Oil
$2,600
Vintage buttons from an online auction. I zoomed in and captured the little details each button has. I liked the diversity of the buttons; unique, connecting to each other filling the space as they lie on the surface. I painted this painting during lockdown. I thought about people on a crowded train bumping into each other. The painting takes me back to the 1970s; I remember the brown patterned furniture with plastic over it.
Thomas work through the process painting layers and layers pushing the painting and drawing to find the separation of looking at the subject to only looking at the painting. This is when he is in the zone, making decisions based on what he sees; this is when his paintings belong to him.
"I enjoy the different challenges associated with anatomy. Even in doing realistic portraits, my goal is to make a painting and not a copy."
The process consists of working from life and references finding what one saw was important to record or share with others. When one works from a photo reference, they look for qualities to express. Online auctions are a great resource for vintage items that are repurposed into new products.
Speed Racer | Oil
$800
I started a series of paintings of matchbox cars. When I look at the Mach 5, all I hear is jumping jacks. When I was younger, I remember looking at all the curves and details on this car. I liked how it looked so fast without moving. I used atmosphere brush marks to create the feeling of energy and speed. My color palette is subtle, walking a line between cool and warm grays. Speed Racer's character influenced the feel and look of this painting.
The Racer X painting is from the Matchbox Car series. Dark and full of mystery, Racer X's car is presented. A strong and clear reflection suggests his duality. This painting has clean and smooth brush strokes, very much like Racer X's personality, as he is precise in keeping a watchful eye over his brother.
Racer X | Oil
$800
Over the years of working with photo references, he always tried to correct the photos' imperfections. Thomas now looks for images that are not perfect, have poor lighting or a poor camera angle, or whose camera technology is not very good. He worked with the reference to capture raw photography by an average user. He did several series using this idea of painting images based on average users' images.
“I was painting images from phone photos on eBay that were not the best reference as the phone tends to use software to create images.”
"The goal of creating art for me is to let the artwork look like art in the end; do it just enough to leave room for the viewer to finish the image in their own thoughts."
During this series, Thomas found his work to be both representational and abstract in a pleasing way. When he is working from life and concentrating his focus on making the image based off the environment that it is in. If he is setting up the still life, he is looking at the relationship between the items and how light is describing them. He wants to say something subtle, which he often does. He focuses on values in the painting, as this is most helpful in keeping the drawing intact. He starts out painting all the dark shapes he sees all over the canvas. He constantly work the whole canvas. This helps him see the painting evolve as he completes small areas at a time. He wants his paintings to be full of color, so he makes color checks all the time. He mixes the color and then measures it for the subject. He use color to either make the subjects be vivid or to make them seem subdued to create a mood. He likes his paintings to look like paintings, meaning that he will push them to be representational, but he will leave abstract aspects to create some tension. He likes to leave some surface marks; areas of the paintings get thick with paint from being painted so much. He paints in layers, from thin to thick, or lean to fat. He uses this technique to allow previous layers to influence new layers. This helps him improve his coloring and drawing during the development stages.
Ice Cube | Graphite
$200
This drawing was of a series of famous people. I choose O'Shea Jackson as he has such compelling expressions. He reminds me of someone who can let you know how they feel without saying a word.
He uses no petroleum products when painting in oils. He uses walnut oils to thin and clean his brushes. He finds this use of materials great as he is not exposed to the VOCs associated with using oil paints. He also have found no difference in how the walnut oil works verse the petro-based solvents.
Taco | Oil
$350
I was eating tacos, and the taco looked like a painting. I painted the taco alla prima. I did a series of 5 x 7-inch alla prima paintings. I wanted to capture how pleasing to the eye the taco looked on its wrapper. I liked how the light was hitting the taco as the textures stood out. I wanted it to feel like the shell was hard and crunchy.
He tends to choose a subject that has a lot of detail. He can get lost in detail for weeks, so early in the painting, he must resist and keep developing it. He focuses on the details near the end, when he stops looking at the subject and is painting on instinct. During this time, he is making decisions based on what he originally felt. This is his favorite part, as he is painting the image for the reference in his head and pushing aspects in the directions he wants them to go. This is when the painting becomes something on its own and diverts away from the reference.
I painted this painting in 2006 and in 2021. I never signed it when I first painted it. It sat in my studio for 15 years, unsigned and unfinished. I liked the light passing through the bottles and how it flattened the bottles closest to the light. The bottles have weight to them because the painting is large. One can see the layers of colors each bottle has reflecting off each other. These old bottles have a skin to them, a texture of time.
Leopards and Zebras | Oil
$6,800
“While painting, I don’t stay completely true to the academic of it but enough to convey the image appearance.”
Tiger Salamander | Oil
$350
I found this guy crossing a busy street, and after helping him or her cross, I snapped a pic. The salamander looks like he is smiling, and the skin looks wet. I wanted the background to be full of noise like where I found it. I was careful not to add too many details; let the rest be completed by you. This is a small alla prima painting from a series.
At the end of the day, he wants the painting to look like a painting, something handcrafted. He tends to paint his paintings over the course of days, weeks, or months, depending on how long he thinks it will take to find what originally attracted him to the idea.
This painting is from my series of online photo references. I found this reference for this painting at an online auction. The car was photographed on a cloudy day using a cheaper phone camera. The reference was poor quality, and that's what got me interested. I liked how the car was on a wooden surface leaning backward and tilted to the left. I liked how the reflections on the surface of the car flattened the shape of the car. I liked how the front wheels look out of whack from years of use.
Tether Car | Oil
$3,600
Sometimes, after considering all the variables, he makes a cool painting, and sometimes he doesn't; that's just the way it goes...
Persian in winter | Oil
This is a portrait of a woman wearing a winter hat. I wanted to draw all the little details of the knitted hat. I wanted to show the puckering of the lips and the glossiness of the glasses. My goal was to have all these details in place with soft edges working together. This is from my series of drawings and paintings based on references on social media.
"My paintings become time machines for my past."
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