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Beryl Cook
Obituary of self-taught British painter Beryl Cook. Born Beryl Lansley in 1926, she produced humorous or poignant pictures of often plump middle-aged ladies, and had an eye for the absurdities of British life.
Journal Article
BERYL COOK
John and [Beryl Cook] bought a guest-house in Plymouth, near the Hoe, in 1968. He continued in the motor-trade and she ran the B&B. After the busy summer months, she was able to paint with a passion during the winter. It was through a guest at the boarding house that word of this remarkable landlady who painted reached Bernard Samuels, who ran Plymouth Arts Centre. He visited her and was impressed by this truly original talent in a house bursting with extraordinary paintings. True to her retiring nature, Beryl Cook only agreed to have an exhibition if she did not have to take part in any publicity or make a personal appearance. Her first exhibition took place at the Plymouth Arts Centre in November 1975 and was a huge success: half the paintings were for sale and all of these sold for between 40 and 60, and the exhibition was extended for a month because there were so many visitors. Cook's fame grew quickly: through limited edition prints and greetings cards and through books, many around the world who had not seen her original paintings became aware of her work. In 1979 The South Bank Show featured her work and in 1982 she appeared on BBC2's One Pair of Eyes. John Murray brought out The Works in 1978, with Sabotage on the cover, and eventually published a further five books of Cook's paintings. The Folio Society chose her to illustrate a 1990 edition of Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood, The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh in 1993 and Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1998. Beryl and [John Cook]'s life in Plymouth was a quiet and a very happy one, with Friday nights down at the Dolphin, their favourite pub, on the Barbican, then perhaps next door for fish and chips. Life in the Dolphin was well documented in her paintings, most famously in The Wake: Beryl and John were just about to go into the pub one day when someone came flying out of the door with a black eye. The mourning had clearly got out of hand. The Lockyer Tavern was another favourite haunt, with its drag shows and colourful clientele.
Newspaper Article