It is with great sadness we announce that the legendary British artist Beryl Cook has passed away on the 28th May 2008, aged 81 years old.
Beryl Cook (10th September 1926 - 28th May 2008) was born in the mid 1920s and was educated in Reading. After leaving Kendrick school shy of her 16th Birthday, Beryl went to secretarial school, and then into office work for an insurance company. Subsequently moving to London and then to Hampton, in 1948 she ended up marrying the boy who lived next door to her in Reading where she grew up, John Cook. In 1950 their son was born who they also named John (junior)
John (senior) left the merchant Navy 6 years later and the couple bought a pub and tried their hand at being publicans for a year. Subsequently, the family moved to Rhodesia after John (senior) found work with an overseas car business.
During this time Beryl decided to buy her young son a box of water colours to play with. While showing him how to use the brushes, she actually found she enjoyed painting.
So for her next birthday John (senior) bought her a box of children’s paint and amazingly her first major painting called ‘Hangover’ was produced with these paints.
The family decided to return to Britain in 1964 and to Cornwall and then later to Plymouth. Here Beryl ran a lodging house for tourists in Plymouth.
By the mid 1970s Beryl had amassed quite a collection of her paintings which of course adorned the walls of the lodging home she owned. One day a friend decided to take some of these to market and to Beryl’s surprise sold them and this gave her the impetus to paint more.
Word of this new artist spread and eventually Mr. Samuels, director of the Plymouth Art Centre, got wind of Beryl, launched an exhibition of her work and a star was born in the UK art world!
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