Hannah Thomas (British) is a painter, she currently works out of her studio in Wiltshire, UK. Working with acrylics, oil sticks and pastels she creates large, bold works characterised by recurring motifs and biomorphic shapes in fractured, abstracted landscapes. Her technique is constantly evolving and she embraces a vital, experimental practice always in the process of recalibrating itself.

She acquired a BA hons in Art and Visual Culture from UWE in Bristol, studying photography. Living and working for over a decade in London as a professional photographer predominantly in the music industry, shooting band portraits, gigs and festivals, she moved over to painting in 2019, desirous of more autonomy and creative freedom in her artistic output. She is now committed to her studio practice full-time.

Presenting a solo show with Red Eight Gallery, London (2024) and with Radio Hair Salon, London (2024) she has also been included in group shows with Shoreditch Modern Gallery, London (2025) and Linden Hall Studios, Kent (2025). She has also been included in shows with AucArt, SOTA, Candid Arts Trust and Visual Artists Association. She has been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2024 and completed the Turps Correspondence Course (with Turps Art School, London) in June 2024 which provides mentoring and feedback to assist in the progression of artists’ studio practice.

Her work is included in private and corporate collections in the UK and Internationally.

‘Over the course of our interchange, I’ve come to respect Hannah’s sensitivity to her materials and concepts in her work, specifically the visual intelligence she applies to her work’s evolution. During our time together she produced a significant number of exceptional paintings, always striving towards a deeper understanding of the idiomatic visual vocabulary she’s so carefully developed’. (Turps CC Tutor 2023/24)

‘Often shaped by ideas of the Absurd, my work is a clarion call for personal freedom and embodies a plea for the release of one’s potency in a world that increasingly restricts, castigates, and confines.  Ultimately, I make my art because it is the art I would like to see, I am trying to provide a visual counterpoint to what I see so much of around me, quite unconsciously my work never seems to quite fit into easy categories, themes or trends and so I have always just had to trust in the quality and integrity of it to find its own audience.

I am moving into looser, more textured work, seeking to evoke the fibrous, sinewy essence of living tissue – human or otherwise – amidst slightly ethereal landscapes.  The biomorphic shapes radiate a sense of predation or fecundity, or both.  These dislocated and abstracted forms give the work a surreal mood which I find very expressive.

I use acrylics for their versatility and quick drying properties, as well as pastels, oil sticks, Indian ink, and charcoal.  I love rubbing back multiple layers, so the canvases have real texture and depth.  This is particularly useful as I don't pre-plan my paintings, meaning there are often changes of direction whilst working.  I love being able to see traces of previous marks in the background of the finished piece.

I reject self-imposed restrictions on my painting, and always take myself out of my comfort zone when working; the roots of the work remain constant and that is what holds it together.  The style and application of paint however is free to be shifting, evolving, and spiralling into new areas.  This is what keeps my relationship to the work fresh and vital.’

Influences are Francis Bacon, David Lynch, HR Giger & Philip Guston; cinema, literature and natural history documentaries are a constant source of reference.

‘It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair, but the laughter of liberation.’

(Theatre of the Absurd - Martin Esslin)