“Establish the work of our hands for us — yes, establish the work of our hands.” — Psalm 90:17
Adrian Joseph Rydge (Toby)
Bora Bora Artist — Abstract Expressionist
Adrian Joseph Rydge, known as Toby, is a self-taught abstract expressionist based in Bora Bora, French Polynesia.
Although he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the Australian National University, his earliest artistic education began much closer to home, growing up around the studio of his grandfather, Albert Rydge. An artist himself, Albert trained under the Meldrum School of Tonalism in Melbourne.
Toby has spent more than twenty years in Bora Bora, developing two distinct but deeply connected careers: one as an artist, the other as a specialist in Tahitian pearls.
His path to Bora Bora was anything but conventional. Before settling into the worlds of art and pearls, he broke in wild horses in the Australian outback, worked on stations across New South Wales, and attended one of Australia’s oldest independent schools from the age of thirteen.
That varied life experience continues to influence his approach to painting. His work is instinctive and expressive, guided less by a predetermined image than by movement, colour, and feeling.
For Toby, the viewer’s personal response to a painting is as important as the intention behind it.
Rare Pearls
“Heaven-born and cradled in the deep blue sea, it is the purest of gems and the most precious.” — S. M. Zwemer, quoted in Kunz & Stevenson, The Book of the Pearl (1908)
Toby has worked in Tahitian pearls for over 20 years, since first arriving in Bora Bora. He holds a GIA Certificate in Pearls, spent a decade with a Polynesian pearl expertise body founded in 1997, and has managed stores for some of the industry’s most respected names. He’s guided clients from around the world — in English and French — often untangling misinformation picked up elsewhere in Bora Bora’s crowded pearl market.
Every pearl in the showroom is sourced directly from Tahitian farms and X-rayed by Toby himself, verifying nacre thickness, a centered nucleus, and the absence of hidden gas pockets — the single most telling test of a pearl’s true quality. Each piece is designed and set by hand. Nothing is mass-produced, and pieces are made available in limited numbers.
The Paintings
“The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.” — Jackson Pollock
Toby works instinctively, without a predetermined plan for where a painting will end up. Colour and line come first, followed by shape and structure, gradually emerging from what is already on the canvas.
He has never been drawn to landscapes, seascapes, or postcard views. Bora Bora already offers those images to every visitor who arrives, and he would rather leave them to memory.
Instead, the paintings are open-ended. Toby does not want to tell you what a piece means or what you should see in it. The interpretation belongs to you.
What you discover in the painting, and how it makes you feel, becomes part of the work itself.
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