Episode 202 - Tom Carment

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Thank you to artist Tom Carment for speaking with us on Art Wank! We visited Tom at his home in Sydney and talked about his long career as an artist. He predominantly paints outdoors, carrying a backpack filled with supplies and capturing interesting sights along the way—whether it's a jacaranda tree, rooftops, or a unique view. His work is like a visual diary, immediate and in the moment. When he paints at home, he often focuses on the everyday, like typewriters, eggs, and vegetables—anything at hand.

Tom is also a prolific and gifted writer so check out his website to read some of his works. 

He is represented by King Street Gallery in Sydney. 

'Tom Carment was born in Sydney in 1954. He studied for one year at Julian Ashton Art School in 1973. Tom is a painter of landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, and is also a writer. His pictures have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions since the 1970s, and his stories and essays have been published nationally. During the 1980s, he lived overseas for four years in Africa (Zimbabwe and Zambia) and in France, returning to Sydney in 1988.

Tom has been represented by King Street Gallery since 1993. With his most recent solo exhibition ‘The Long Way Round’ in October 2023.

Tom’s portraits have been selected for the Archibald Prize twelve times, and his landscapes for the Wynne Prize eight times. His works are held by the Art Gallery of NSW, City of Melbourne Art & Heritage Collection, NSW State Parliament, State Library of NSW, Kedumba Drawing Collection, Macquarie Group Collection and many others.

Tom was the winner of the 2014 NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, the 2008 Gallipoli Art Prize and the 2005 Mosman Art Prize. Over one hundred of Tom’s works were shown at the 2014 Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial at the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2008 the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery held a survey of his work entitled, People, Paddocks, Coastlines.

From 2004-06 Tom worked on a commission for the City of Melbourne to document in words, paintings and drawings the construction of Council House 2 – the ‘greenest’ office building in Australia.

Tom’s work is a reportage on his life – the external environment through his landscapes, the internal environment and friendships through his still lifes and portraits. Tom’s pictures are usually small in scale and notable for their sensitive interpretation of light. Nearly all of his works are painted and drawn from life.

Tom’s published books include Days and Nights in Africa (1985), Seven Walks – Cape Leeuwin to Bundeena (2014) and Womerah Lane – Lives and Landscapes (October 2019).

Tom currently resides in Sydney, NSW.' King Street Gallery Website