A celebrated Ayrshire artist who ‘had a narrative for each event’ has handed away aged 78.
Gordon Cockburn, of Maybole, was well-known throughout the area for his watercolours, ink drawings, pastels or oils depicting landscapes, seascapes, mining life, and his outstanding Auschwitz assortment.
The son of a coal miner, along with his father serving 52 years underground, Gordon was influenced by his mining hyperlinks and even spent a while underground to totally seize the miners themselves and the surroundings from which they labored.
His mining sequence was exhibited on the Midlothian Mining Museum in 2011.
Gordon, who was educated at Carrick Academy, opened the Cockburn Gallery in Maybole in 2007, which he ran till simply earlier than the pandemic.
In addition to producing scenes from throughout Ayrshire, the largely self-taught artist additionally portrayed road scenes, nightlife and cultural life from his travels overseas in Amsterdam, Venice, Paris, Turkey, Greece, and Poland.
His Auschwitz Collection — a group of over 500 work, pastels and drawings — was prompted by an opportunity go to to Auschwitz in 1993 the place he was extraordinarily moved by his publicity to the focus camp.
He devoted the subsequent 5 years to placed on canvas his interpretation of the horrors of which these incarcerated have been subjected to.
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This sequence was for exhibition solely as Gordon strongly believed he shouldn't revenue from the struggling of thousands and thousands.
His buddy and Holocaust survivor the late Cantor Ernest Levy OBE opened the primary exhibition of those works at Rozelle Home gallery in Ayr.
Gordon’s working profession began out worlds away from artwork as he labored as a rally driver, and raced his beloved Sunbeam Rapier.
It was not till the mid-70s that he started exhibiting his work, initially on the Carnegie Library by way of the Ayr Artwork Circle (1974-77).
He turned his then storage right into a studio and would typically be discovered there till the early hours within the freezing chilly with no heating portray away.
Gordon is survived by son Daryl and daughter Michelle.
They mentioned of their father: “Our dad was by no means wanting a narrative, he had a narrative for each event. They are going to be missed by everybody who knew him.”
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