Works

Tim Meagher

Contact

Biography

British artist. Has exhibited in solo and group shows, in museums and galleries nationally and internationally. Now living in Romanshorn, Switzerland. Initially, because both my parents painted, I wanted to do something else. I decided to be a writer and at 17 won second prize in the Stroud Festival of Literature poetry competition. This led me to study English and American Literature at Bristol University. But the visual arts were in my blood and in my early 20's I started making sculptural objects, mostly at that time using 3-4mm thick saddlery and harness leather which I used to get from Conolly's warehouse in London.

Portrait Tim Meagher
Romanshorn, 2020

I would mould form stitch and colour it. I spent 1983/84 at Corwainers College in London experimenting and developing techniques. While there I spent many free hours drawing and being inspired by the objects in The Museum of Mankind (now sadly gone) and have since continued my love of "tribal art" and indiginous "World Art".

Soon, these turned into paintings, where in many of them the dominant themes turned out to be an attempt to express tensions and relationships between nature and technology and between our material and spiritual dimensions. I developed a method of using bookbinders board, which I could cut to the required dimensions, building the painting out of pieces so that I could alter the size and format of the painting as I worked.

It was a way of stirring things up in the work as I could move parts of the painting around, adding and discarding images, and finding interesting chance encounters. When the work felt right, then the pieces were glued to thin ply, finished and braced. Many of the paintings ended up with the piece of board I'd used as a palette inlayed into the painting.
In 1987/88 I was awarded a major bursary by South West Arts, and in 1989 was invited to give a solo show at Fremantle Arts Centre as part of the Perth International Festival of the Arts in Western Australia. From this I was offered teaching and residencies, first in Western Australia, and then in the east in Canberra where I was artist-in-residence at Canberra School of Art where I also had a solo show. Altogether my wife Romy and I spent a couple of years in the country before travelling on to New Zealand where we spent nearly three years. While there I had a couple of solo shows in galleries in Auckland, and a residency at Waikato Polytechnic in Hamilton.
In 1998 I was invited to give a solo exhibition at the Schloss Arbon in northern Swizerland, and have continued living, working and exhibiting in Switzerland since. In 2007 I had a solo show in Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum in the U.K. titled "Undersong", and a calalogue of the same name, was published in English and German to accompany it.
This exhibition was a kind of watershed for me and I needed a fresh start so I went back to my roots, painting portraits, mostly of friends, musicians, scenes, objects. This has led me to a deeper appraisal of painters like Velasquez, Rembrandt and Frans Hals, among many others, where the magic lies primarily in the mysterious relationships and differences between the painted image, which takes on its own reality, and that of the subject depicted; not an illustration, but a distilled essence being sought ultimately through intuition and imagination. Francis Bacon called it "the mystery of appearance". Throughout this time I have continued making objects, using combinations of various techniques and materials. The "Thiepval Wood" paintings are an ongoing series inspired by reading Martin Middlebrook's "The First Day on the Somme". The nearby soldiers used this wood for "relaxation", a smoke and a brew of tea before taking part in one of the most disastrous and bloody battles in British history.
In 2014/15, 12 of these paintings were exhibited at the Stadarchiv Museum in Friedrichshafen Germany in commemoration and to mark the centenary of the First World War. Recently I have begun to set my poetry into the paintings. To me the physical act of writing is like drawing, so the words become an integral part of the wo Less.

Education

Studied English and American Literature and Art at St Matthias College, University of Bristol, 1968-71

Qualified as teacher

1983-84 studied at Cordwainers College, London, researching sculptural techniques

Music
Songs which are original, personal and sometimes humorous on life, love and loss, which often include comment on contemporary issues such as feelings of alienation, global warming and social injustice. Styles influenced by Bluesy Rock/ Acoustic/ Contemporary Country/ and World Music but with an individual take. All songs written and performed by Tim Frederick Meagher.

Music on Youtube

Exhibitions

2016:
Publication of "Friedrichshafener Jahrbuch" with chapter on "The Thiepval Wood Paintings" shown at the Stadarchiv Museum, Friedrichshafen in 2014/15.

2015:
3 Artists, Kunstraum Romanshorn, Opening 7pm October 23

2014 / 2015:
(Solo) "The Thiepval Wood Paintings", Stadarchiv Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany (As part of the centenary of W.W.1)

2014:
(Solo) Galerie Botanica, Romanshorn

2013:
(Solo) "Journey through Spain", Meyers altem Hallenbad, Romanshorn, Switzerland

2010:
(Solo)Locorama, Romanshorn, Switzerland

2007:
(Solo) "Undersong", Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, England. Catalogue with English and German text.

2005 & 2006:
(Group) Castellucio di Pienza,Sienna, Italy

2005:
(Group): The Last Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland

2003 & 2004:
(Group): Gallery Bollag, Zürich, Switzerland

2003:
(Group): "Brainworks", Memory Klinik, Munsterlingen, Switzerland

2001:
(Solo): Galerie vor der Klostermauer, St Gallen, Switzerland

2001:
(Group): RW Fine Arts Collection Winterthur, Switzerland

1999:
(Solo): Galerie Schloss; Arbon, Switzerland

1999:
(Group): Kunst-Kontakt 99, St Gallen, Switzerland

1997:
(Solo): Oxford Artweeks, Oxxford, England

1996:
(Group): Axiom Gallery, Cheltenham, England

1995:
(Group): Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

1993:
(Solo): Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

1992:
(Solo): Waikato Polytechnic Gallery, Hamilton, New Zealand

1990:
(Solo): Canberra Institute for the Arts, Canberra, Australia

1990:
(Solo): Southern Arts Touring Exhibition,Winchester Gallery, England

1989:
(Solo): Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Australia

1988:
(Solo): Riverside Mill Gallery, Bovey Tracey, England

1988
(Solo): Artsite Gallery, Bath ( Bath Arts Festival), England

1987:
(Solo): Prema Art Centre, Uley, England