My father, Nicholas Simington, who has died aged 89, was a professional artist who embodied the virtue of never giving up on your dream.
Nicholas was born in Antwerp, to Irish parents, Maureen (nee O’Reilly), a former baker, and David, who worked for General Motors and was on a short secondment in Belgium. He spent his childhood years in Drogheda, County Louth, leaving Ireland for London with his family in 1940 when his father got a job with the British civil service – he once joked that it was the only time a family moved to get nearer the blitz.
When a new job took his parents to Egypt at the end of the second world war, Nicholas boarded at Salesian college, Oxford, for several years, hating almost every minute. His only joy was found in art classes, and he won prizes for his work.
He longed to go on to art school but his parents forbade it, and after completing his national service in the RAF, he undertook a series of mundane jobs, which left him unfulfilled.
His luck changed when he met Barbara Preston at a dance. They married in 1961 and moved to Scotland the following year, and he began evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art under William Crosbie, who praised his talent and encouraged him to study full time. The opportunity came in 1968 when the art school offered him a grant, provided he committed to teaching art for two years at the end of his course.
The unbridled joy he experienced seemed to solve all his problems. After seven years of marriage he had become reconciled to not having children; however, within months of starting his qualification, Barbara was pregnant with the first of two sons, who were born during this time of intense creativity.
Studying at the same time as Robbie Coltrane, who he remembered would set up his easel and then disappear to the drama school next door, Nicholas graduated with a diploma of art in 1972 and never looked back.
He moved to Norfolk in 1975, and devoted himself to his art. While Barbara supported the family by teaching, he painted tirelessly, producing an impressive body of work.
His work was selected for the Serpentine’s summer exhibition in 1982, and further critical acclaim followed from fellow artists, reviewers and gallery owners. He had one-man shows at the Minories in Colchester, and at the Blackheath gallery and Thompson’s galleries in London.
To his delight, at the age of 83 he was shortlisted for the Artist of the Year award by Artists & Illustrators magazine, and he continued to paint every day until he was 86.
He is survived by Barbara, his sons, Liam and me, and his grandchildren, Kento and Airi.
