Jason Bowyer

I was shocked to learn, in reading the brochure of the forthcoming New English Exhibition, a group of which he was once President and founded its Drawing School, of the death of Jason Bowyer. I knew Jason for most of his life and his oil painting of Walberswick is hanging on my wall as I write this.

Jason came from a painting family.

His father William was a Royal Academician (a rival group to the New English, though Academicians would see it the other way round), his brother Francis an artist and his wife Claire a ceramicist.

This can be both an inspiration and a constraint by way of comparison, as in “a good artist but not as good as his father”.

As with his father, the coast of Suffolk at Southwold and Walberswick was a constant source of inspiration. Suffolk has a clear light which the Bowyers caught beautifully.

Jason’s other passion was Fulham Football Club. Our Alan Tanner knew him well. Jason got to most home games and his real ambition – never fulfilled – was to play for the club.

He was only 61, a victim of a fatal heart attack whilst on his bicycle in his beloved Walberswick.