When I met Tom we were young and naïve in business. We thought that you only had to be good at something to be successful. For the next five years we put our lives on hold and all our energies into creating a collection of paintings we thought would change our lives forever. Bad timing! Nothing changed.
Now we were under pressure. Tom from his family and I from the bank. We had to earn a living. We compromised our ideals and settled for a gallery and sold his work with modest successes. But the dream alwats eluded us. Time and time agian Tom's passion for horses took him to the brink of successonly to be dashed again by bad luck or bad timing. Despite the setbacks he kept trying - even in the last year of his life a friend inspired him again to paint Sadlers Wells. We even got as far as getting permission to travel to the stud in Irelend so that we could photograph the great stallion in his paddock and stables interacting with his handlers. But his illness staretd to take its toll and the final date was never set. Even so, we spent many hours planning the marketing of Sadlers Wells. The original painting he wanted to be given to one of the 500 purchasers of the published limited edition by drawing from a hat. There was no gain for him. The limited edition prints he wanted to sell to recover the cost to us alone, the profit was to go to the injured jockeys fund. Again he looked for no financial reward for himself.
In the end all Tom wanted was quite simply recognition, and that is the mark of a true artist. Ask any artist which is more important, financial success or recognition. I believe the majority will answer the latter.
So by publishing this book I hope to capture the elusive dream by giving pleasure to those who turn these pages, those who remeber him may pass it to those who did not know him. By turning the profit to Tom's favourite good causes, maybe luck will finally smile our way and Tom will get the recognition he deserved. |
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