Every month, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine chooses one of our favourite artists to TAKE OVER our social media for the day. Just in case you missed it, below we present the full TAKE OVER from our August artist, Tom Bagshaw.
Tom is of the most formidable digital artists of our time; his stunningly dark and mysterious women embrace the power of feminine beauty and inner strength. They are honoured and portrayed as women we can admire and seek to be like. There is an intensity captured in Tom’s work, a detail that has seen him change the views of digital art… his pieces are embraced and highly sought after by collectors. We are so pleased to have Tom present today’s TAKE OVER. Today he has shared artists that have been instrumental in shaping his creative path!
Tom Bagshaw // Thanks so much to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine for inviting me to share some of my favourite art with their followers! Quite honestly, trying to pick 7 pieces of work for this has been one of the hardest things I’ve been asked to do, it’s almost impossible for me to single out just 7 pieces of inspiring work from a world of artists. After a while, I decided to take a slightly different route and choose to share artists that have been instrumental in shaping my own creative path, maybe not the specific works by that artist, but without coming across their work, I wouldn’t be doing what I do now! (By the way, if anyone is interested in what’s been inspiring me over the last few years you can also check out carboncradle.tumblr.com)
‘Torn’ created for the inaugural group show at Menton’s Ars Memoria gallery in Chicago in 2016. It’s a pretty small portrait piece but for me it was one that just came together really well. I have a serious ‘love / hate’ relationship during my working process, I can end up changing things drastically or end up noodling away, rendering unnecessarily- trying to get things ‘right’. But this piece, for whatever reason, just flowed really well and I was / am truly happy with the end result.
‘Dead Man Dead’ by Robert Maguire // Some of my earliest influences came from a lot of artists and illustrators producing pulp cover art, Robert Maguire, Glen Orbik and Robert McGinnis. Their Femme Fatale imagery was / is wonderful, this piece in particular by Robert Maguire for the cover of ‘Dead Man Dead’ by David Alexander has remained one of my favourites, the palette, pose, lighting… beautiful work.
‘Red Earth’ by Roger Dean // I can’t remember the year but I found a copy of Roger Dean’s book ‘Views’ in the mid/late 80’s and was immediately hooked on his sci-fi landscapes and sense of design. ‘Views’ showcased his works after his graduation in ’68, his design of the classic ‘Yes’ logo (now in the V&A in London) and a wealth of colourful fantasy landscapes. (A lot of his work can also been seen as a big influence for Pandora from James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ although a court case ruled this as ‘misguided’. Hmmm.) Anyway, his work left a lasting impression.
‘Storm Warning’ (crop) by Rick Berry // Along with Dave McKean, Rick Berry was one of the first artists I discovered who utilised digital media in his work. Berry is cited as having created the first digitally painted book cover ’Neuromancer’ in the early 80’s with help from hackers at MIT’s Machine Architectural Group. His digital experimentation was a real eye opener to me as he used this new medium in a way that felt similar to his traditional expressionistic figurative work, it really put me on the path to a digital painting career.
‘Red Wing’ by Brom // I really don’t know what to say about Gerald Brom, the guy is a legend. I found his work many years ago via a fantasy book cover called Cinnabar Shadows by Lyn Abbey, I wasn’t really that interested in the book- but the image on the cover was mesmerizingly creepy! Broms dark fantasy art has been a source of inspiration ever since, a few years ago I also had the pleasure of discovering his wife’s work as well- make sure you check out Laurielee Broms wonderful paintings!
Ashley Wood // Initially I discovered Ashley Woods work in the 1999 graphic novel ’Spawn Blood and Shadows’, I loved his visual take on Todd McFarlanes antihero and have followed his career ever since. As well as work as a comics artist, illustrator, art director and exhibiting artist he is also co founder of ThreeA who primarily produce toys based on his characters. If you’ve never seen any of their figures make sure you check them out, I wish I owned all of them! As an aside to Ash’s comics, it was through his work with IDW that I also discovered Tom Mullers graphic design work, another source of inspiration!
‘Mistborn The Hero Of Ages’ by Jon Foster // Jon Foster is one of those illustrators who can really turn his hand to pretty much anything. I came across his work shortly after I changed to painting digitally and since then he has been a continued source of inspiration to me. I love his traditional work but it was his involvement with digital painting that initially drew me in. His ability to work with some really pretty tricky commercial briefs for book covers, editorials etc and produce such beautiful, dynamic images that draw you in to the composition, incredible work.
‘The Bride of Death’ by Thomas Jones Barker // This is the last of my chosen seven and kind of my wild card. All my choices have been artists whose work I have come across over the years and have given a strong sense of inspiration that have enabled me to develop my own career. Of course these are only a few, there are many more, but there are also other artists, genres or movements that have inspired me since I started looking at art from a very early age. I have always been drawn to figurative work and when I moved to Bath nearly 20 years ago now, I found this painting in the Victoria Art Gallery. It’s part of their permanent collection and I go to the gallery many times each year just to sit and stare at it. Quite honestly, it’s just stunning, the symbolism and back story aside, it’s a piece that just sparks a real emotional response for me. If you ever come to Bath, make sure you take some time to take it in.
This was the last piece chosen by Tom Bagshaw, for today’s TAKE OVER! Thank you again Tom we really appreciate you taking the time to put this day together.
