Childhood Rediscovered
Why do we love playing with our children or our grandchildren?
Because they remind us of what it felt like to be young.
Why do we love to admire Samuel Thomas’ paintings?
Because they remind us of what it felt like to be young.
You may not have discovered the artworks of this Norfolk artist, but Samuel Thomas’ paintings rekindle our childhood vision of the world. His pop-art inspired paintings are joyous celebrations of the world around us, these are not backward looking pastiches’ but aspirational projections of the self into a better future. The artist uses his Norfolk surroundings to capture scenes including the iconic RAF Red Arrows painting the skies with a giant love heart to mesmerising sunsets that have a dreamy quality within them. Being young is often a state of mind – a state of mind that is embodied within these paintings.
''The child sees everything in a state of newness; he is always drunk.....
Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered.'' (Baudelelaire, 1863,)
We can rekindle and rediscover our sense of wonder and amazement of the world around us when we lose ourselves in these euphoric paintings. Samuel Thomas, 29, admits he is a bit of an old soul at heart, but he embraces this element of his personality and admits it’s this quality that inspires him to paint the world around him. ‘Sometimes words just don’t do the story justice – and only a painting will do’ exclaims the artist. As children our imaginations are wild, our ideas are limitless, our energy is boundless, nothing is ever off limits.
'Never lose touch with your sense of wonder about the world – rekindle the wild imaginations we once experienced as children.’ (Samuel Thomas)
Samuel Thomas is a natural observer of the world, and he finds it fascinating to watch the world around him and respond to it in his own unique way. As we grow older we become fixated on the quest of building the perfect life for ourselves, but in doing so we in fact make life harder for ourselves. We are so preoccupied with rushing around and stressing out over our frenetic routines that we sacrifice the present moment being preoccupied with the future prospect of improving our lives. We are hardly ever contented because we are always striving for something - but what?
Sometimes all we need to do to realise how perfect our lives actually are is to slow down and appreciate exactly what it is we are experiencing. This is what Samuel Thomas aims to do with his paintings - to remind people of how much there is to celebrate in their lives already.
My paintings exist on many levels; as beautiful dreamlike scenes, to exploring escapism we all long for and portraying the world as seen through the eyes of a child that is a wild and limitless. The artworks aim to capture that overwhelming feeling that washes over you after watching a profound life-affirming film. We all know that life is rarely perfect, and the pursuit of perfection is a pointless one, because as human beings we are rarely ever contented with what we obtain. But Samuel’s paintings encourage us to appreciate how perfect our lives already are. The spirit and atmosphere in each original is unique, capturing for eternity a brief moment in its perfect state.
‘The best way I could describe my works is a something caught between a surreal day-dream and reality played out on canvas.’ (Samuel Thomas)
Another concept Samuel is fascinated by is nostalgia and as we grow older our sense of nostalgia grows stronger and stronger. Moments we once never knew were so precious become golden memories we long to re-live in some way or another. Time slips away faster and faster as we grow older, trying to hold onto time is as pointless as trying to hold onto sand in our hands without it slipping through our fingers. ‘Nostalgia’ is a painting that encapsulates this idea and was created using real sand collected by the artist as walked his local beach one evening.
The appeal of Samuel Thomas ‘ artwork transcends and appeals to many generations due to the diverse range of artistic influences that run through each piece. The artist’s signature painting style is reminiscent of the ‘come to the seaside’ railway posters from the 1920’s with elements of stylised art deco patterns. In addition to this you can also see a fusion of 1960’s psychedelia to pop art of the 1950s resulting in artwork that has a sense of nostalgia and timelessness.
‘I am a painter consumed in capturing the world that surrounds me in its perfect state through my eyes, before it escapes me forever.’ (Samuel Thomas)