William Timlin - South African Artist, Drawings, Paintings 1893 - 1943
William Timlin was born in Northumberland, England 1893 - 1943
Art Education
Armstrong College of Art, Newcastle, United Kingdom. Architecture and art in Kimberley.
Short Artist Biography
From his earliest youth a most talented draughtsman. William Timlin studied art at Morpeth Grammar School, winning a scholarship to Armstrong College.
1912: William Timlin followed his parents to Kimberley; apprenticed to DW Greatbatch - architect; passed with honours in art exams of South Kensington Board of Education, held in Kimberley.
1914: William Timlin founded Art Section of Kimberley's Athenaeum Club; began exhibiting illustrations and fantasies in pen and watercolour; later, South African landscapes in etchings, pastels and oils; member of South African Society of Artists; well received in South Africa at the time and popular in USA; wrote stories and music; prepared numerous commissioned illuminations; William Timlin designed first cover for `The Outspan'; illustrated books of plays and poetry.
1923: William Timlin published `The Ship that Sailed to Mars', a fantasy for which film-rights were purchased in the USA, but the film - to be entitled `Get Off the Earth' - was never completed; active member of South African Institute.
1927: Published `South Africa', a series of pencil sketches; began to build up a series of fantasy paintings for a book to be entitled `The Building of a Fairy City'; wrote the text, but never completed the project; numerous paintings of scenes for the book exist in various South African collections.
1936: William Timlin visited Java via Zanzibar - Zanzi-bar pencil-drawings and Balinese paintings.
1939: William Timlin second trip to Java. All this time a successful practising architect in partnership with his original employer; designed Kimberley Hospital, Boys' High School, Girls' High School, War Memorial; also noted for fantastic interior decor of Johannesburg's Colosseum Theatre. Member of Institute of South African Architects, Licentiate of Royal Institute of British Architects. Illustrated `Out of the Crucible' by Hedley Chilvers, `Kees van die Kalahari' and other books by GC and SB Hobson; also many stories by notable writers in `The Outspan'. William Timlin elected Fellow of South African Society of Artists. His familiar emblem - an owl - resulted from the accidental killing of a snowy owl while on an early shooting expedition with his father on the Gaap Plateau. Distressed, he resolved to immortalize it in his work.
1943: William Timlin died as a result of pneumonia after fracturing his arm in a fall.
Art Exhibitions
1914: one-man art exhibitions in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Kimberley; group art exhibitions with South African Society of Artists and provincial societies.
1924: South African Art, Empire Exhibition, Wembley.
1927: Inaugural Exhibition, South African Institute, Durban.
1936: Empire Exhibition, Johannesburg.
1964: Memorial Exhibition, William Humphreys Gallery, Kmberley.
Public Art Collections
William Humphreys Gallery, Kmberely; Pretoria Art Museum; Durban Art Gallery; AC White Gallery,
Bloemfontein; Albany Museum, Grahamstown
.
Source
Berman, E. 1994. Art & Artists of South Africa . Southern Book Publishers.
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