Tim Woolcock (b. 1952)

Born in Lancashire, Tim Woolcock studied Art and Philosophy at Roehampton, University of London, after attending Arnold School in Blackpool. He taught in London from 1974 to 1986 before running a successful framing business, returning to painting in the late 1990s. His work quickly gained recognition, and he resumed his career as a full-time artist in 1999.

Encouraged from an early age, Woolcock regularly visited the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool as a teenager. His work is influenced by artists of the 1950s, particularly members of the St Ives School such as William Scott and Ben Nicholson. His paintings are characterised by strong pigments and fractured geometric forms, balanced by a refined and sensitive use of colour. Writing in The Times in 2013, Joanna Pitman described him as “one of our finest modern British colourists.”

Alongside his abstract work, Woolcock paints landscapes influenced by Paul Nash and Helen Dunbar. He is particularly drawn to contrasts between the landscapes of Ireland and England, as well as between the coasts of Lancashire and Cornwall, where his family originates. His practice is also shaped by an interest in Zen philosophy, reflected in the simplicity of his abstractions and the evocative quality of his landscapes.

Woolcock has exhibited widely, including with the Russell Gallery and Ransom Gallery in London, Lemon Street Gallery in Truro, and Jorgensen Fine Art in Dublin. In 2009, one of his paintings was acquired by the Irish Government’s Department for Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.