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Tom
was born in 1915 on the family farm in Devon. He was the
grandson of the well known Victorian painter Edouard van
Goethem, whose distinctive watercolours have been reproduced
worldwide as greetings cards and more recently as a series
of colour prints. Tom was educated at Sherborne School in
Dorset and went on to study at the Slade School of Art in
London. After leaving The Slade he painted, mainly watercolours,
and illustrated books, exhibiting at the Royal Academy.
During the Second World War Tom served as a Major in the
94th Field Regiment and latterly commanded 224 Battery.
He was awarded the Military Cross in Normandy after the
invasion but shortly afterwards was wounded in the legs
by machine gun fire. He returned to his Battery shortly
before the Allied Armies crossed the Rhine. After the war
Tom was in charge of the town of Lehrte, near Hanover, in
north Germany. It was here that he met his future wife,
Renate, who was the daughter of the local Lutheran Pastor.
In 1946 he returned to England to take on the family dairy
farm. In the same year he was joined by Renate who came
across as one of the first “War Brides” when she was just
18. Renate Greenshields vividly describes this, along with
her upbringing in Germany before and during the war, in
her book ‘Lucky Girl Goodbye’.
Tom did not have much time for art during his 32 years farming,
until his eldest son, Tim, took over the farm in 1980. He
lost the use of his right hand in a farming accident in
1981, but successfully transferred his skills to his left
hand and devoted all of his time to drawing, painting and
sculpture.
He has had many exhibitions and currently his sculpture
is exhibited in art galleries in England, Scotland and Wales
and abroad.
All Tom’s sculptures are modelled from life with working
sketches and drawings some of which have been reproduced
as signed, limited edition prints. The initial sculpture
is created in clay and a mould is then made from which an
exact resin marble copy is produced. This resin marble figure
becomes the master copy for all subsequent moulds. The final
reproductions are individually hand cast and finished in
either bronze, resin bronze, resin copper or resin marble.
Tom died in August 1994, and is succeeded by five children.
The youngest, Maria, is also a sculptor. |
