Artwork Description:

Title: The Silk Mill and River Derwent

The Silk Mill in Derby city centre is home to the Museum of Making.  It was built for Thomas Lombe in 1721 and rebuilt after a fire in 1910. The Lombe Brothers – Thomas and John – built this mill after stealing the secrets of spinning silk from mills in Piedmont, Italy.

Painted on location with the final touches completed in the cafe on the ground floor of the Silk Mill.

Artist Bio:

Working quickly with a fountain pen, waterproof ink and watercolour, Tom captures views of cafes, city streets and rural views in an urban sketch style.  Some of these are worked into larger pictures back in the studio using pen and wash or oil.  Sometimes an image demands to be painted and battles a path via sketches and photographs to be released from just an idea to become a finished piece of work.

Tom has always been fascinated by our impact on the landscape and started sketching the urban environment of cafes, railway stations and airports while travelling for work.  Now Tom can often be found sketching and painting in and around Derby and enjoys chatting to onlookers about art techniques, the history of local buildings or where to find the best coffee and cake.