Tom Speedy’s work explores open, ambiguous narratives that reflect emotional states of drifting, separation, and displacement. His paintings combine landscape and figurative storytelling to create a tension between the figure and the world it inhabits – where unrelated places and incidents seem to overlap, entwine, and reconfigure.
Working from fleeting memories and everyday observations – often gathered while travelling – Tom begins with sketching and photography before moving into an intuitive and experimental painting process. Figures engaged in acts of leisure such as fishing, rowing, or water polo reappear inside saturated, water-lit worlds that feel both recognisable and dream-like.
Tom graduated in 2025 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design with First-Class Honours and has been selected for the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in Spring 2026. He is a recipient of the RSA John Kinross Scholarship, has been shortlisted for the New Blood Emerging Art Prize, and nominated for both the Freelands Foundation Painting Prize and the WSA Painting Prize. Two of his Degree Show paintings were also exhibited at Unit London during Frieze Week 2025.
