Toby Gawler (b.1987) is originally from Sydney, Australia where he lived most of his life before moving to the Netherlands in 2014 and then onto the United Kingdom in late 2015. Toby completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) at Sydney College of the Arts in 2007 and after not learning how to paint or draw traditionally, but instead, learning to think critically about art, he became disillusioned from ‘contemporary art’ and moved towards a passion for tattooing which he concentrated on for the past 14 years.

Over the past 5 years he’s been exploring and learning to use oil paint, which he never had before, and through continuing to learn the technical aspects of the medium is now focusing on work that can investigate themes of self, the fragility of memory, narrative, and nostalgia of the past. Toby is heavily influenced by 20th-century Australian figurative portraiture and the masters such as Sargent, Goya, Lazlo, Manet, Desportes, and Sorolla to name a few.

His purpose is to make work that the viewer can have a connection with through the use of these themes, and inject their own experiences and emotions into the work.

Toby now lives with his wife by the seaside in Margate, England.