My name is Bart Thomas. My story starts
My name is Bart Thomas. My story starts on my bithdate augustus 10, 1958. I was born and grew up in a warm family with 6 children and an art-loving mother. Since childhood I was drawn to drawing and crafting. That hasn’t changed that much over the years.
I grew up in a warm family with 6 children and an art-loving mother. Since childhood I felt attracted to drawing and crafting. That hasn’t changed much over the years.
From the age of ten I enjoyed going to the drawing school in my hometown of Uccle. Later, during my highschool education, I took drawing and painting lessons on Sunday mornings at the “Ecole d’art d’Uccle”.
In a cellar that opened onto the garden of my parents’ house stood a workbench that had belonged to my grandfather, a carpenter and cabinetmaker. None of my brothers or sisters had any interest in it except for me. Near my home was a DIY annex wood store. After closing hours, I regularly went to browse through their dumpster to pick up discarded pieces of wood. In my small workshop I used them to make all kinds of things, such as a wooden swords and shields, a pirate boat, a soapbox cart and my first figurines. By trial and error I taught myself to work with wood, using saws, chisels, files, rasps, drills, etc, ….
After my studies of Master in electro-mechanical engineering I had to do my military service. Fortunately I had an art-loving colonel and got leave in the evening to go to the renowned art school Sint-Lucas Brussels. This is where I took classes in model drawing, clay & ceramics. In that clay and ceramics training, the seed was sown for sculpting.
After my military service I went to work for various companies in an industrial environment. First as a designer, later as a responsible of a technology and training center and finally as a middle manager.
In 1983 I married my wife Carla and we had two children. In the first years it was a happy but busy time. There was little time left to occupy myself with artistic matters.
When my children became teenagers I got more spare time. I took 7 years of sculpting lessons in evening classes at the Portaelsschool for visual arts in Vilvoorde. There I learned the basic techniques of sculpting in clay, plaster and stone.
After graduating from Portaelsschool for visual arts, I refined my sculpting knowledge at the Academy of Fine Arts in Anderlecht. It was my privilege to have Alexander Ketele as my teacher. Alexander Ketele, a passionate artist and craftsman thought me the technique of making sculptures in copper. he also thought me the sense of aesthetics, movement and harmony in making sculptures.
For several years now I have been making sculptures in my studio at my home in Grimbergen (Belgium). Currently, I mainly focus on making abstract sculptures in mixed media.
Sometimes people ask me why I sculpt and not paint as an artistic expression. In addition to artistic expression, sculpting allows me to apply many techniques. sculpting also alows to perform mentally relaxing manual labour. In addition, I love exploring in three dimensions where a sculpture looks different from different positions.
I invite you to visit the links on my website and discover my life in sculpture. Would you like to be part of my journey by becoming one of my art collectors? Don’t believe the myth that art is only available to wealthy individuals. If you would like to learn more about my sculptures and how you can collect them, sign up for my email newsletter to receive information. Living with art is one of the most valuable, uplifting and culturally enriching gifts to us as human beings.
Sincerely yours,
Bart Thomas