Artist Database

David Botha was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape in 1921. He received his teaching qualifications from the Cape Town Teacher’s Training College in 1941 and taught art at several high schools in Paarl between 1946 and 1979. Botha spent two years studying at the Camberwell School of Art in London, UK (1950 to 1952), during which he also travelled to France, Italy, and Spain. He held his first solo exhibition in Cape Town in 1944 and would go on to mount fifty solo exhibitions and participate in over 100 group shows throughout his career. Botha was a painter and printmaker who utilised a range of media such as oil, watercolour, ink, charcoal, and linocuts. He was a follower of Cape Impressionism and is known for his still lifes and street scenes, particularly those that depict wet Cape winter days in the Boland.