Tom Rooth

Turtle traffic

Tom lives in the Cambrian Mountains, where he has a studio and kiln to create and fire his handmade ceramics. He hand-draws all of his designs, which are inspired by nature, the cosmos, and his passion for food and cooking. He is member of the Chelsea Arts Club, and was formerly a director and fine art expert at Christie’s.Tom has drawn and painted all his life, and ceramics is the medium that best combines my passions - drawing, the natural world, and the cosmos. Depicting animals and sea creatures on ceramic stretches back to the mosaics of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and Tom’s work is part of this heritage, but with a contemporary edge. His mid-19th century schoolhouse studio enables him to work on a scale beyond the scope of most artists.

Tom lives in a dark sky area, so the night skies are emblazoned with stars and planets, creating the perfect conditions for drawing directly onto ceramic panels from his telescope. He also works in oils on canvas, and in 2014 painted the 20 x 30ft Northcote Mural in Battersea, London. Tom was formerly a senior Art Specialist, Director and Head of Department at Christie's, and worked at Phillips, Sotheby's and Bonhams for over twenty years in the London art market.Tom comes from a family of artists, and his great-grandfather was an artist-inventor, who designed and built the first ever car-drawn caravan, and invented the 'step' that allows the bow of speed boats to lift off the water, to go faster. He also built and designed boat-planes and was the first artist to draw from the skies, attaching his pencil to a piece of string to stop it blowing away. His paintings can be found in the Imperial War Museum. His younger son Ian Fleming-Williams OBE (Tom’s grandfather) was also an artist, and at fifteen years old became one of the youngest ever entrants to the Royal Academy Art Schools. He later became the expert on the great British landscape painter, John Constable.