Alumni (8 April - 27 May 2005)

By Anna Dowd (Liverpool Student Newsaper, 16 May 2005)

Having left John Moores nine years ago with a degree in Fine art under his belt, Tom Palin has returned, and this time to claim first prize as part of ‘Alumni’. “The last time I was in this room was for my degree show back in 96,” the artist explains as he looks around deep in thought. The déjà vu Palin is experiencing is, I would say, the emotional substance behind his art.

Like snapshots from a dream, his book-sized oil paintings draw you in, tapping into the imagination of the viewer. Palin uses objects to provoke poetic musings in the mind of his audience. A vase of flowers and a boat at sail are presented in a subdued and hazy light like a distant memory, stirring thoughts and associations which would otherwise be dormant in the mind.

There is something more provocative about seeing a still from a film scene than watching the whole story being told before you. Untold, the meaning of the scene is left open to the subjective imagination of the viewer. It is this cognitive process that Palin explores through his work, and it is not what his paintings tell you but what they don’t that makes them so captivating.

The journey through the imagination which the audience is being taken on reflects that which the artist himself takes, as he admits that he rarely sticks to his original plans:  “I just see where the line takes me”, he states. Layer after layer of paint is applied by the artist over months and sometimes years, and then scrapped off to reveal what lies beneath. The history of the surface is revealed, like an imprint of the past, as the painty tells you a story of time, a remnant of what once was. This complements the sense of nostalgia which his work conjures; each painting evokes a different association to each individual person.

Born and bred on Merseyside, Palin told me he has no plans to leave: “A lot of people head down to London, but the way I see it is that I’ve managed to create the work I have living over on the Wirral, so what’s the point in moving?” Having spent time working in Munich, Prague, Dublin and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Palin has travelled around; however, it is here in Merseyside where he has chosen to stay. With numerous awards under his belt, he has already made a name for himself in the art world. His aristic career is relatively premature and the best is surely yet to come from this productive young man.