Gerald Anthony Coles (1929–2004) was an English

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

, and

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

designer. Born in

Luton, Bedfordshire Luton () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to ...

, he was trained at the Luton School of Art (1943–45) before working for the Harper and Hendra Studios in Harpenden and then for Hugh Ray Easton (1945–47). He attended the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London (1951–54) during which time he won the Steer Painting Prize (1953). From 1954 to 1958, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and travelled widely throughout Europe. In 1959, he was awarded a French Government Travelling Scholarship to study stained glass design in France, and was awarded the Seguret Scholarship by the Cite Universitaire de Paris. In 1960-61, he was awarded the Sir Arthur Evans Travelling Scholarship by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass to travel and study in Germany and Austria. In 1975, he was elected Associate of the

British Society of Master Glass Painters The British Society of Master Glass Painters (BSMGP) is a British trade association for the art and craft of stained glass. Founded in 1921, it is a membership organisation which exists to represent the trade of glass painting and staining in Brit ...

and in 1979 he was awarded a prize in The Steering Committee of Stained Glass Design, Tokyo. During his career, Coles assisted Hugh Easton on many stained glass commissions, including the Battle of Britain memorial window in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. Other commissions took him overseas to the United States, South Africa, India and Australia. In addition to his skills as a stained glass designer, Coles produced numerous oil paintings, prints in the form of woodcuts and monotypes, watercolours and drawings. He has exhibited at many places, including the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, the O’Hana Gallery, and, earlier, at the Maison Internationale, the Cité Université de Paris. A number of his works are retained by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

References

External links

Gerald Coles British Museum CollectionGerald Anthony Coles Official WebsiteHugh Easton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, Gerald 1929 births 2004 deaths People from Luton 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century English male artists English stained glass artists and manufacturers Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts 20th-century English printmakers 20th-century English male artists