COOK, Beryl

1926 - 2008

As Beryl Francis Lansley, she was born in Egham, Surrey on 10 September 1926, her parents separated when she was quite young. In 1948, she married her childhood friend John Victor Cook (May 1926-9 June 2004), who was in the merchant navy and when he retired from the sea, they briefly ran the White Horse public house in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. In 1956 they went to live in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) returning to England in 1963 to live in Cornwall where Beryl began to paint in earnest and in 1968 purchased a guest house on Plymouth Hoe. Beryl had no formal training and did not take up painting until she was in her thirties and was best known for her original, often comical, and instantly recognisable paintings. In 1976 Beryl had her first London exhibition which was a sell out and was the start of an exceptional relationship with London’s Portal Gallery where she exhibited continuously for 32 years. Beryl Francis Cook died at her home in Plymouth on 28 May 2008.
Website: https://ourberylcook.com

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Works by This Artist