Gerald Anthony Coles (1929–2004) was an English

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, 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 proce ...

, and

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

designer. Born in

Luton, Bedfordshire Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

, 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 Hugh Ray Easton (26 November 1906 – 15 August 1965) was an English stained-glass artist. His workshop was in Cambridge. Biography Hugh Easton was born in London, son of Frank (a doctor) and Alice ( Howland). He studied in France and worked fo ...

(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), was found in 1921, it is British trade association for the art and craft of stained glass. It promotes the trade of glass painting and staining in Britain. BSMGP activities include: lectures ...

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 historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. 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 public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

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 printmakers English stained glass artists and manufacturers Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists