Tim Southall was born in Staffordshire and grew up on the edge of the heavy industrial heartlands of the Black Country. He studied Fine Art at Northumbria University and then printmaking at the Royal College of Art and l'école des beaux art, Paris. For the last 22 years he has been based on the Atlantic coast in Cadiz Province in southern Spain. He makes work that draws heavily on his imagination to create witty narrative etchings and silkscreen prints. He also makes works that reflect his location in the form of evocative coastal monotypes.
Proportionally, Tim makes most of his work in etching, followed by silkscreen print and monotype. He also makes paintings and the occasional sculpture. All of his work begins life either in his studio in Cadiz, or coalescing in his mind as he goes about his daily business in rural Spain. From these experiences a spark of an idea moves from the mind into notes and jottings, which gradually come together to form compositions. Once a rough idea is formed, the actual piece of work is begun in earnest. Small scale cutout drawings are placed and shuffled around an image template until Tim is satisfied with their location.
These are then transcribed onto an etching plate or adhered to a silkscreen base drawing. This process continues, gradually adding more detail, until the image the is complete.
Tim's work is figurative and generally uses a narrative framework to explore themes of commonality, often with a strong character and emotional base. He plays with metaphors, scale and perspective, and creating images that at first seem intrinsically simple, but on closer inspection are quite profound. His creative process is everyday life. He acts like a sponge, soaking up the nuances of character and behaviour that he sees in others and also within himself. He often reaches back into his childhood experiences to reference a distant self in a quest to find meaning in what he sees here today. This 'distance' offers a linear route of his life experience; from birth through to death and everything in between. Over the forty three years since first making a print, the process has continued to intrigue and beguile him. He takes great joy in finding new approaches to the medium, setting himself harder goals, creating paths of greater difficulty, and triumphing over his inevitable failures. In the end, all that really matters to him is that the viewer has the opportunity to find their own meaning and value in the art that he makes.
Recent solo & joint exhibitions include
2023 Impressions (joint exhibition) Barbican Centre
2020 Stories in Print, Craft & Design Centre Leeds
2018 Etchings, silkscreens & monotypes, White Room Gallery
2016'Scenes in Print' New Ashgate Gallery
