Tom Croft
Tom is a portrait painter from Oxford who initiated Portraits for NHS Heroes. During the pandemic in 2020 Tom put a video message on social media offering a free portrait to the first NHS key worker to contact him. He then encouraged other artists to do the same, to document, elevate and celebrate the NHS heroes. Over 14,000 portraits were produced worldwide. Tom produced a book with Bloomsbury Publishing featuring 700 of the portraits, and the book raised money for NHS Charities Together. Google Arts and Culture built an online gallery that also shows the many pieces produced. He received a British Empire Medal in 2021 in recognition of the project.
Tom has produced paintings for a wide range of clients, from academics, musicians and authors, to Premiership footballers and politicians. Tom shows regularly at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, is a member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters collective and is a Oxford Art Society member.
Alongside his commissions Tom likes to explore new ways of describing people in a contemporary visual manner, representing and mirroring modern society.