THOM ROBERTS: This is a painting of a super can. I do this in Thom’s way, instead of doing a nose, I do a hand nose or foot nose
GABRIELLE MORDY, STUDIO A: Thom is a man of many interests and he’s a man who’s very curious about the world
THOM ROBERTS: This train is called Freddy and they got phased out by the way.
GABRIELLE MORDY: He paints people as trains, people as towers. He loves infrastructure and he personifies infrastructure.
Some of the really reoccurring motifs in Thom’s work are things like multiple eyes and piano keys for teeth.
He’s been a finalist in the Archibald Prize four times now,
Thom is one of the artists at Studio A. We provide professional development for artists with intellectual disability. So we work to put in the right supports so that really talented artists like Thom can perform in the in the mainstream contemporary art world.
THOM ROBERTS: I want to thank everybody for coming tonight to see my Thom Roberts in my big gallery.
Kermit the frog is just over here. Everyone’s here.
Sky Fox, Jumbo Junior.
GABRIELLE MORDY: Thom always renames people that he meets.
THOM ROBERTS: I name you Steam.
Hi Kayla.
KATERINA: My real name Katerina.
THOM ROBERTS: This is Kylie Panther
GABRIELLE MORDY: Every now and then, he’ll meet a lady and he’ll call her Mrs Staveley. And in amongst all these other names, I’ve always found this a particularly intriguing name.
Whenever you ask Thom something like why do you paint four eyes? Who’s Mrs Staveley? His common answer is ohh, I don’t know. I do it Thom’s way.
And then one day Mrs Staveley turns up at Studio A.
JUDITH STAVELEY: I’m Mrs Staveley and I was Thom’s teacher many years ago. In fact, 40 years ago.
THOM ROBERTS: Ah, there’s me. I feel shocked. She was my primary school teacher back in 1983.
She used to have jet black hair. Now it’s more like this colour and she’s in her 90s.
JUDITH STAVELEY: I saw one of the mothers of one of the children who’d been at school, and they said I believe Thom’s doing a lot of beautiful artwork and he greeted me as a long-lost friend
For me, it was extremely emotional. I loved that little boy.
Who is the boy at the end with his head back there?
THOM ROBERTS: Thom!
JUDITH STAVELEY: They were fun days, Thom weren’t they?
THOM ROBERTS: Yes!
JUDITH STAVELEY: They were fun days.
GABRIELLE MORDY: The next thing Thom was saying can I paint to you for the Sulman Prize and Thom knows that the Sulman Prize is a big deal. So I think in the language of Thom he’s saying, you are a big deal to me.
JUDITH STAVELEY: He sketched me that afternoon and took a couple of photographs.
GABRIELLE MORDY: We all thought that Thom was going to do a traditional portrait with piano teeth and four eyes and a foot for a nose. In typical Thom style, that is not quite what happened.
THOM ROBERTS: I named her Mrs Picture Book
GABRIELLE MORDY: Thom wanted to represent Mrs Picture Book as a picture book. And he also wanted to turn her into a kind of revised, reimagined Goldilocks – a 92-year-old Goldilocks.
JUDITH STAVELEY: And it was accepted in the finals of the of the Sulman.
JUDITH STAVELEY: Oh look, look, look, look. Oh, I look Thom, I love it. I just love it. Here I am with piano teeth and several eyes and a nose that has a hand at the end of it. But it’s me. He’s captured me.
It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful. I’m so proud of you, I really am. It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful. And all the paintings you do of people is wonderful.
THOM ROBERTS: Chromehurst school at Lindfield
JUDITH STAVELEY: What’d you like best?
THOM ROBERTS: You.
JUDITH STAVELEY: Thank you. Thank you that’s lovely.
GABRIELLE MORDY: Mrs Stavely made Thom feel important, Mrs Stevely made Thom feel loved at school and he has been remembering her ever since.
JUDITH STAVELEY: Poor old lady has to go slowly.
THOM ROBERTS: You used to walk faster.
JUDITH STAVELEY: I used to walk fast.
He tells me he’s going to go on painting till he’s an old man and then as an aside, he said you’ll be dead but I’ll go on painting and I think, well, you’re absolutely right.
Thom has an ability to process things so wonderfully and if you go to his exhibition and you don’t come out feeling joyful and happy, there’s something wrong with you.
Thank you, Thom, for painting that.
THOM ROBERTS: No problem.
JUDITH STAVELEY: No problem, no problem at all.