Tim Booth
I was born in Co. Kildare in Ireland in 1943, educated by Quakers in Waterford and earned a BA in Arts in Trinity College, Dublin in 1964, before hitting the streets. After a brief and disturbing spell in advertising, I started to paint seriously and began to show regularly in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, then the standard bearer of the avant garde in Irish painting and sculpture. My work at the time was influenced by American and English ‘Pop Art’ as well as comic strips, film and animation and still is to this day. Showing in the Living Art led to considerable sales by collectors and an invitation to hold my first one man show in the legendary Brown Thomas Gallery where a lot of Irish artists of my generation got their start. I’d have to say, it’s been all downhill from there.....
Music was also a huge influence and in the mid 60’s along with fellow artist Tim Goulding and musician Ivan Pawle I became of a member of, what these days is considered a cult outfit - psychedelic lounge band Doctor Strangely Strange. So I now had two strings to my Bow. Painting and music, and the trick was to find time for both without either being ignored. The band toured and I painted for exhibitions when we were not on the road, but something had to give and it did. After reasonable success we decided to put the band on hold for a while and attend to things like families and career. My painting and drawing had led me by creative osmosis into animation and film, and I worked in this area for the next twenty or so years, but always painting and drawing whenever I could and showing whenever possible. A move to Kerry in 1999 proved inspirational and the results are here web published for you to behold.
