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 Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or quarry". It may also ...

, 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 th ...

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

Mow Cop Mow Cop is a village split between Cheshire and Staffordshire, and therefore divided between the North West England, North West and West Midlands (region), West Midlands regions of England. It is south of Manchester and north of Stoke-on-Trent ...

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 grani ...

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

Piccadilly Gallery The Piccadilly Gallery was an art gallery that operated from a number of addresses in London between 1953 and 2007. It was originally founded as the Pilkington Gallery in 1953 by Eve Pilkington and her husband Godfrey Pilkington, with a focus o ...

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

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