Thursday 5 June 2008

Beryl Cook died a week ago and nobody told me.

Artist Beryl Cook, known for her colourful and comic paintings of larger-than-life ladies, has died at the age of 81. She died peacefully at her home in Plymouth on Wednesday with her husband and family at her side. Cook had no formal training and did not take up painting until her 40s, but her work went on to become hugely popular.

8 Comments:

Blogger Hayley Campbell said...

'Twas front page news over here.

5 June 2008 at 03:11:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Matthew Adams said...

It made the tv news here (sbs). Was never really sure what I felt about her work. It is almost like some housewife went to some folk art class, but then turned it into something actually creative. I admire it for that reason, then I lose interest...

But then, I suspect she didn't care what other people thought about her art.

5 June 2008 at 08:36:00 GMT-5  
Blogger James Langdell said...

I've not been familiar with her work, but the first impression this painting gives me is a cross between Stanley Spencer and Dennis Kitchen.

5 June 2008 at 18:59:00 GMT-5  
Blogger John Freeman said...

We posted a news item on the downthetubes blog (http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/). Sad news but she was enjoying life right up to the very end by all accounts.

6 June 2008 at 07:33:00 GMT-5  
Blogger James Langdell said...

Here's an example of Stanley Spencer's paintings to show why he came to mind on seeing a work by Beryl Cook:

http://www.studio-international.co.uk/search/index.asp

(The verification word requested for this comment, pixvrfdc, sounds more like something Grundoon would say than most do.)

6 June 2008 at 13:14:00 GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eddie,

I came across an exhibition of political cartoons in Canterbury this weekend (07/06/08), and discovered that there is a British Cartoon Archive, with Carl Giles material amongst plenty of other artists. Apparently, though I haven't investigaqted beyond finding the home page, the images have been scanned and are available to look at - I'm not sure whether this is online or just in person.

Thought you might be interested anyhow:

http://library.kent.ac.uk/cartoons/

Ben Smith

9 June 2008 at 05:54:00 GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(off topic)
Have you seen your profile at GoodReads? Just thought you'd like to know, if you haven't.

9 June 2008 at 22:02:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Hayley Campbell said...

Blog more, bumface!

I'm like those ladies that didn't know what to do when Oprah stopped her bookclub.

12 June 2008 at 06:25:00 GMT-5  

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