Be patient. Making a painting is more of a battle than a flash of inspiration. In fact, I don’t think inspiration has much to do with it at all. One of the portraits I’m working on at the moment has been excruciatingly slow progress but I’ve learned to enjoy the fight.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist” I had the pleasure of interviewing TB Ward.
TB Ward’s journey through creativity serves as a testament to the transformative power of art. From his early days in England to his adventures in the music industry and his flourishing career as a visual artist in New York, Ward’s story inspires others to pursue their passions fearlessly. His commitment to innovation and exploration continues to shape the contemporary art landscape, leaving an indelible mark on those who encounter his work.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
Big question! I was born in Barnsley in South Yorkshire in the north of England but my family moved to Shropshire which is a rural county on the England/Wales border when I was quite young. I spent all of my school years there. It was beautiful and quiet in the 1970s and 80s. My parents bought a derelict old house in 1976 — we lived in a caravan in the front garden for a year while they worked on it. One of my first memories of that house is that there was an old double decker bus parked in the driveway. The old man that had lived there previously used it as a place to sleep in because the upstairs of the house was too dangerous! And then the bus caught fire during the first Summer and that was that! It sounds perhaps that I’m making all of this up, but as a kid I really didn’t venture very far other than to forage around in the fields that surrounded the house. I was dedicated to drawing and painting and was also very into sport — I sort of lived in a solo fantasy sporting world. I started cycling when I was 12 or 13 — the environment was perfect for riding — no cars, countless small roads and lanes to explore. I ended up racing bikes pretty full on until I left home for art college at 19.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
After being unceremoniously ejected from art college in 1990, I was kicking around looking for some direction when I reconnected with two friends from school. They were both more into music than me but we kinda loosely started making some recordings — I said I didn’t mind being the person who said stuff into a microphone so I was the singer. It developed into a real thing (called Elevate) and we started playing shows, firstly in Liverpool and then in 1993, we moved to London. We toured and made records until 1999 when things started breaking down. During that time, in 1995, we’d played a show in NYC, and I met Ruth. Two years later we got married in her hometown of Chicago. We lived in London initially, but in 1999 we moved to New York and that, due to the fact that I was in an unfamiliar place and didn’t really know anyone, was where I first started to pick up a paintbrush again. That was a significant moment that pointed me in this painterly direction.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’m not sure that it’s my ‘most’ interesting story, but during the first winter after I’d moved to NY, a friend of a friend found me a job working on a giant 100’ x 80’ mural created by Sol Lewitt. The piece was called ‘Loopy Doopy (Blue & Purple)’ and was being fabricated at a warehouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. There were 50 artists working on the piece which was made up of individual 4’ x 4’ panels and under quite strict supervision we each had particular jobs for the duration of the project — mine was to paint the edges of the panels which was pretty unglamorous stuff! However, it was an important moment for me, because I think before that I’d not fully realized the level of professionalism, organization, and discipline that it takes to create high quality art.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m making a series of portrait paintings — all of which are of people that I know well. It feels very personal and I’m enjoying the feeling of responsibility to document the sitter accurately, with as much care and empathy as possible. I have the belief that I can read people quite well and without imposing my painting “style” onto them — I’m hoping the viewer sees the sitter through me. I’m finding the whole project increasingly fascinating and, especially when honing in on the finer details of observation, the things that make a person look the way they do, I think it forces me to push the painting further than I have done previously.
In conjunction with the paintings I’m also very excited to be making a 12” vinyl EP which contains 4 songs and 5 short stories, all recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder. In a way, it takes me back emotionally to my early music days back in the 90s. Both projects are titled Professional Human, and I think the combination of music, stories, and paintings really show a broad picture of where I am creatively at this moment in time.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I think I generally gravitate towards creative people — it doesn’t have to be art related but I enjoy the company of people who are trying to ‘find’ something. In the past I had a few cool interactions with the BBC DJ John Peel — he was a fan of Elevate — one of them a slightly inebriated live interview (set up by our band manager/not sure how much sense I was making) from a club in Brussels one night after we’d played a show.
And one evening in NYC, maybe 20 years ago, I hung out with Mick Rock at a fundraiser where he was taking very cool giant Polaroid photographs of people. We ended up talking all evening and I just remember it being really funny — I think we could’ve been mates.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Can you share a story about that?
I almost always draw inspiration from my location and events happening around me. For instance, when I returned to Shropshire for a time in 2014 I found myself having an overwhelming desire to take advantage of the countryside around me so I made a series of plein-air landscape paintings. I think the seed had been planted years ago when, as a kid growing up, I’d poured over a Van Gogh book that my parents had. I loved looking at his work — I still do. I’ve always made pencil sketches of the landscape but taking an easel and oils out into the field really helped develop me as an analytical painter.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’d say that my creative spirit and somewhat naive/wholesale commitment to an idea is somewhat inspiring to other people, and that it makes them feel as if they can give their own ideas a go, too.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I don’t wish anyone had told me anything really, because I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. I like working it out for myself and drawing my own conclusions. I would say that these are 5 things I would tell someone else (if they asked):
1 . Be patient. Making a painting is more of a battle than a flash of inspiration. In fact, I don’t think inspiration has much to do with it at all. One of the portraits I’m working on at the moment has been excruciatingly slow progress but I’ve learned to enjoy the fight.
2 . Keep working, you’ll get better
3 . Do/make whatever you want whenever you want
4 . Learn about the history of art
5 . Learn to draw
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
It’d be a movement that made people less afraid of each other and of our differences so that we can then begin to tackle some of the real issues that we all face. I do believe that making art alongside others can help bring people together because we learn to not be afraid to share what we’ve made and how think, not be frightened to open up. It’s not a competition.
We have been blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she just might see this.
I think I’m going to go for David Hockney. He’s funny, also from Yorkshire, a great painter, and probably likes a cup of tea.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
TB Ward: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.