Jack Simcock (6 June 1929-13 May 2012) was a British painter. He was born to a mining family in

Biddulph Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire. Origin of the name Biddulph's name may come from Old English language, Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or q ...

, Staffordshire and studied at

Burslem School of Art Burslem School of Art was an art school in the centre of the town of Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry. Pottery was made on the site of the school from t ...

. He is best known for "a long series of bleak, sombre oils on board" of the

Mow Cop Mow Cop is a village on the Cheshire-Staffordshire border, England, south of Manchester and north of Stoke-on-Trent, on a steep hill of the same name rising to above sea level. The village is at the edge of the southern Pennines, with the Ch ...

area in which he lived for much of his life.''The Guardian'', 31/05/2012,
Jack Simcock obituary
, 14/05/2013 Reginald Haggar highlighted the "richness of colour that underlies the seemingly black and white effects, glints of terracotta and old gold through steely grey" in a ''

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

'' article of 1963. Simcock started exhibiting at London's

Piccadilly Gallery The Piccadilly Gallery was a London-based art gallery that operated from 1953 until 2007. The gallery was founded in 1953 as the Pilkington Gallery by art dealer Godfrey Pilkington and his wife, Eve. Christabel Briggs joined as a partner in 19 ...

from 1957 after encouragement from Arthur Berry and went on to have more than fifty solo shows worldwide.''The Sentinel'', 15/05/2012,
Artist Jack Simcock dies on eve of exhibition
, 14/05/2013 His work is in various public collections in the UK which can be viewed through the ''Art UK'' website. Simcock's autobiography, ''Simcock, Mow Cop'' (1975) discusses his life, his beliefs and his artistic preferences. In the same year, Simcock also published a book of poetry entitled ''Midnight Till Three''. He died on the eve of the opening of "The Boys", an exhibition at Keele University, of his paintings, together with those of his fellow Burslem School of Art alumni, Enos Lovatt and Arthur Berry.

References

1929 births 2012 deaths 20th-century British painters Alumni of Burslem School of Art Artists from Staffordshire British modern painters English male painters People from Biddulph 20th-century English male artists {{UK-painter-20thC-stub