🖼 INTERVIEW WITH DIANA BOOTH IN MEMORY OF HER DAD, JIM BOOTH 🎨 🌊

We had the pleasure of learning more about the talented, Jim Booth!

HP: Why did your Dad choose to support Charleston Waterkeeper?

DB: My Dad had not sold any original paintings since the mid-1990’s. Back then he had one customer who was buying them all and he realized “once they’re gone, they’re gone”. Also, having to pay taxes on the extra income really hurt! He decided he’d just rather keep the originals…with no real plan for them. In his final year of life he became adamant that ALL the remaining originals go to benefit charity and/or be put on public display. He frantically tried to form a foundation to own the originals with a purpose to fulfill his vision. Unfortunately, he ran out of time and passed in June of 2021. I can’t even count how many times he said “girls y’all are getting enough, I want these painting to go elsewhere” – and he was right! When selling my originals from the estate, I picked charities that Dad had either mentioned or charities that I knew he would love to support.

HP: What is his favorite way to enjoy clean water?

DB: Everything! Dad really loved to fish: offshore, inshore, freshwater – it didn’t matter! Growing up we primarily lived on Oak Island (near Folly Beach) and every nice weekend was spent doing something on the water. If Dad wasn’t offshore fishing then he and my Mom (and often times the whole family) would be inshore fishing, setting crab traps off the dock, shrimping, gigging, oystering, marsh hen hunting, hydro sliding…he did it all! We would often take the boat to Morris Island (before it was so popular) where Mom and Dad enjoyed surf fishing. We would all walk the beach searching for shells and artifacts…which we had many prize pieces. Dad also enjoyed sitting out on his back deck and watching the sunset over the creek and boat rides in the many little creeks around the house. He loved the waters of the Lowcountry and his art was heavily inspired from all his time enjoying it.

HP: What is your favorite waterway in Charleston?

DB: I would have to say Lighthouse Inlet between Folly Beach and Morris Island. When we went to Morris Island this is primarily where we would go.  If the tides and sand bars were right, Dad would even leave out of this inlet to go offshore fishing!! To get offshore, it was a much shorter ride from our house to leave out of that inlet vs going around to the Stono Inlet.  We used to stay on Folly Beach for vacations and Dad would always pick houses near the old Coast Guard station so he could walk down to enjoy Lighthouse Inlet. 

HP: Tell us about a project or painting that was important/special to him.

DB: Dad really enjoyed both the challenge and the meaning behind the Prospect Hill Plantation and Camellia set. He painted this set while living at Prospect Hill and included his wife Virginia’s family heirloom furniture and vases, wallpaper from the plantation house, and camellias from the property. Recreating the detailed wallpaper was very, very time consuming and challenging as it had to line up and color match across all three canvases. The main furniture piece reflected the avenue of oaks in the mirror. The two side pieces featured Virginia’s vases and the camellia flowers with water droplets. It was Dad’s way of “bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out”. This set took Dad much more time and effort than any of his previous paintings. Unfortunately, as much as Dad enjoyed designing and creating the triptych it was much too “different” and complicated for his customers and many did not care for it.

A water related painting that was important to Dad was “Day’s End”. Dad had an eye stroke around 2014 in his dominant, right, eye and could not longer see out of it. He had to adjust to the lack of depth perception “re-learning” in a way to do many daily tasks. Painting without depth perception was difficult as he couldn’t tell when his brush was going to touch the canvas. He learned if he kept his left hand on the canvas it helped his brain know where his right hand with the brush was in relation to the canvas! It took him a bit of time to adjust but once he completed “Day’s End” he had mastered the new technique!

HP: Tell us something interesting about yourself that we might not know.

DB: Dad loved painting abstract art!  He learned early on it did not sell as well as his realistic works so he focused on producing what would sell.  He would always tell customers his favorite thing to paint were the water, clouds, and tree branches/leaves as they were in a sense “abstract” and he could make them up as he painted.  Dad’s least favorite thing to paint were buildings, as architecture has so many exact details and straight lines. With buildings people can also go to them and see if he painted them correctly…with water, for example, no one can say “you got that wave wrong”!

Diana Booth – daughter and owner of Jim Booth Art Gallery.  Diana worked side by side with Jim at the gallery for over 20 years. Jim Booth.