Theo Batten worked as a messenger for the David Jones department store, before joining The Sun as a copy boy in 1934. He became a cadet artist and was eventually appointed senior artist in The Sun's art department.
Batten served in the Australian Army during 1940-1945, where he was assigned to the LHQ Cartographic Company (No.1 Drawing Section) in Bendigo, Victoria. After World War II, Batten studied painting and illustration at the East Sydney Technical College, as part of the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
Batten subsequently worked as a freelance illustrator for various magazine and book publishers, producing cartoons, story illustrations and covers for detective novels. In 1952, Batten left Australia with his wife, the journalist and writer Anthea Goddard, and lived in London, where he established himself as an advertising artist and magazine illustrator.
Batten's work for British clients was frequently syndicated to Australian publishers throughout the 1950s. Returning to Australia in 1959, Batten was able to capitalise on his overseas reputation and opened his own commercial art studio in 1960.
Batten painted dramatic illustrations, designed to accompany short stories appearing in popular Australian women's magazines throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, including The Australian Women's Weekly, Everybody's (formerly The Australian Woman's Mirror), and Woman's Day. In 1972, Batten won the Walkley Award for 'Best Colour or Black and White Illustration' for his illustration of 'The Sandman', a short story by Clinton Smith (q.v.), published in The Australian Women's Weekly in December 1971.
Amongst Batten's best-known creations from this period were the 'funny animal' cartoons--'Feathers' (about a talking parrot) and 'Lucky Cat' (based on Batten's own pet feline)--that appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly and Woman's Day. Batten revived the 'Lucky Cat' strip for the comics' supplement of the Sun-Herald newspaper in 1977.
During the 1980s, Batten commenced writing short stories, which saw publication in The Bulletin and in several short fiction anthologies. He later became a member of the Manly Art Gallery & Museum Society and taught painting and illustration at several venues throughout Manly, New South Wales.
