My friend Ian Jarman, who has died aged 63 of a heart attack, was an artist who captured the changing urban face of Manchester as well as the timeless rural landscapes of East Anglia and the Hebrides.
Painting was the centre of Ian’s being, and through artistic adventures in his mind he responded to the landscapes around him by producing powerful images and evoking a real sense of place – in oil, mixed media and watercolour.
While his rural landscapes conveyed beauty and evoked atmosphere, it is probably his powerful monoprint images of Manchester’s inner city that represent his most distinctive work. Examples of Ian’s paintings are included in numerous private collections.
Born in Warrington, Cheshire, to Charlie, a typographer, and his wife, Ivy (nee Bateman), who worked for a time as a nanny, Ian got his initial inspiration from his father, who was a lover of art and music. After Boteler grammar school, which Ian and I both attended, and then Warrington Art College, he gained a degree in graphics at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University). There he honed his artistic talents and pursued his love of avant-garde music, literature and the paintings of Bacon and Freud.
After university he worked as a graphic artist for various companies around Manchester, including The Creative Department (1977-84), Clicks Computer Graphics (1984-91) and On-Line Presentation Graphics (1991-2000). At the same time he painted privately and in 2001 he became a full-time professional artist.
His work was first shown at the Longden gallery in Macclesfield in 2003, as part of an open exhibition of small scale work by various artists. Solo exhibitions followed with regularity at the Wendy J Levy gallery in Didsbury from 2006 to 2013, and he sold around 85% of the work he exhibited.
As a member of the Longden collective of artists he also regularly exhibited and sold work through the Longden gallery and his paintings appeared at the Manchester Art fair, Manchester Exhibition Centre, the White Gallery in Bollington and the Barnaby festival in Macclesfield.
Ian had a keen sense of humour and was one of the kindest, most genuine individuals imaginable; someone who went out of his way to help and inspire other artists, friends and family members.
He is survived by two sisters, Mavis and Christine.
