Jonathon Coudrille
Encyclopedia
Jonathon Xavier Coudrille is an English
artist, musician and writer. He was born in November 1945 on the Lizard Peninsula
in Cornwall
, an area with which he is still closely associated. His father was the artist and ventriloquist Francis Coudrill
. In 2011 he founded the Lizard Stuckists
.
.
Plymouth
and the local commercial station Westward Television
, which gave him his own show entitled Young Tomorrow. He also worked on BBC Radio
's Today programme, under the aegis of Jack de Manio
. He continued with musical political satire when he moved from the BBC to Southern Television
, where he was given a Monday news magazine slot, and was later the station's musical director for a period. However, his career in broadcasting was abruptly cut short by a car accident in 1972, which temporarily crippled him with spinal damage.
at the Penzance
School of Art, where Tunnard taught from 1945 to 1965.
During the 1990s, Coudrille exhibited at the Royal Academy
in London
and the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Exeter
. In 2004, during the Liverpool Biennial
, his work was included in The Stuckists Punk Victorian
show at the Walker Art Gallery
.
Some of his recent work, most notably the photographic montage Analogue of Surreal Nostalgia (2005), is in the permanent collection of Falmouth Art Gallery
.
Coudrille was interviewed about his life and paintings for the programme John Nettles' Westcountry, broadcast by the Artsworld channel, now known as Sky Arts
.
; he plays and composes for guitar, 7-string banjo, piano, organ and trumpet. His musical interests and influences are principally jazz, Russian and gypsy music.http://yoodoomusic.ning.com/profile/JXCoudrille
During the 1960s, Coudrille played in Soho strip-clubs. During his broadcasting career, he composed and arranged for television and radio; his guitar performance and arrangement of Francisco Tárrega
's Recuerdos de la Alhambra
was the signature tune for Jack Hargreaves
' long-running Out of Town. He entered the Melody Maker
's national folk contest in 1974, and was named top rock-folk soloist. Later, at the peak of his musical career during the 1980s, he performed his composition Caballeta Suite for Spanish guitar in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra
at the Royal Festival Hall
in London
.
He is currently a member of the Cornish semi-acoustic jazz band Gwelhellin Goth http://gwelhellingoth.comhttp://www.myspace.com/gwelhellin, and the Russian folk-music duo Muzika Muzikantov.
The illustrated alphabet A Beastly Collection was published in 1974 by Frederick Warne & Co
, the publishers of Beatrix Potter
. The book received critical acclaim, and was compared to the work of John Tenniel
.
His second book Farmer Fisher (1975) was a best seller, winning the UK Children's Book of The Year award in 1976. Farmer Fisher is thought to have been the first picture book on the UK market to include a record (7-inch vinyl disc). It was republished in 1978 by Puffin Books
, and in 2010 by Footsteps Press.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist, musician and writer. He was born in November 1945 on the Lizard Peninsula
The Lizard
The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, an area with which he is still closely associated. His father was the artist and ventriloquist Francis Coudrill
Francis Coudrill
Francis Coudrill was an English artist and ventriloquist, most notable for being the creator of Hank the Cowboy...
. In 2011 he founded the Lizard Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
.
Career
With notable contributions in a number of fields, Jonathon Coudrille can be described as a polymathPolymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
.
Broadcasting
Coudrille started out in broadcasting at the age of 17, appearing as a political satirist on both BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and the local commercial station Westward Television
Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not...
, which gave him his own show entitled Young Tomorrow. He also worked on BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
's Today programme, under the aegis of Jack de Manio
Jack de Manio
Jack de Manio MC and Bar was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter....
. He continued with musical political satire when he moved from the BBC to Southern Television
Southern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
, where he was given a Monday news magazine slot, and was later the station's musical director for a period. However, his career in broadcasting was abruptly cut short by a car accident in 1972, which temporarily crippled him with spinal damage.
Art
Coudrille studied painting with the leading English surrealist John TunnardJohn Tunnard
John Samuel Tunnard was an English Modernist designer and painter. He was the cousin of landscape architect Christopher Tunnard.-Life:...
at the Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
School of Art, where Tunnard taught from 1945 to 1965.
During the 1990s, Coudrille exhibited at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
. In 2004, during the Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
, his work was included in The Stuckists Punk Victorian
The Stuckists Punk Victorian
The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005, and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial....
show at the Walker Art Gallery
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...
.
Some of his recent work, most notably the photographic montage Analogue of Surreal Nostalgia (2005), is in the permanent collection of Falmouth Art Gallery
Falmouth Art Gallery
Falmouth Art Gallery is an art gallery in Cornwall, with one of the leading art collections in Cornwall and southwest England, which features work by old masters, major Victorian artists, British and French Impressionists, leading surrealists and maritime artists, children's book illustrators,...
.
Coudrille was interviewed about his life and paintings for the programme John Nettles' Westcountry, broadcast by the Artsworld channel, now known as Sky Arts
Sky Arts
Sky Arts and Sky Arts HD is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels offering 18 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music...
.
Music
Coudrille is also a multi-instrumentalistMulti-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
; he plays and composes for guitar, 7-string banjo, piano, organ and trumpet. His musical interests and influences are principally jazz, Russian and gypsy music.http://yoodoomusic.ning.com/profile/JXCoudrille
During the 1960s, Coudrille played in Soho strip-clubs. During his broadcasting career, he composed and arranged for television and radio; his guitar performance and arrangement of Francisco Tárrega
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist of the Romantic period.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Vila-real, Castelló, Spain...
's Recuerdos de la Alhambra
Recuerdos de la Alhambra
Recuerdos de la Alhambra is a classical guitar piece composed in 1896 by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega. He wrote it in Granada.A virtuoso on his instrument, Tárrega was known as the "Sarasate of the guitar"...
was the signature tune for Jack Hargreaves
Jack Hargreaves
Jack Hargreaves OBE was an author and television presenter in the UK. His enduring interest was to comment without nostalgia or sentimentality on accelerating distortions in relations between the city and the countryside....
' long-running Out of Town. He entered the Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
's national folk contest in 1974, and was named top rock-folk soloist. Later, at the peak of his musical career during the 1980s, he performed his composition Caballeta Suite for Spanish guitar in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-History:...
at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
He is currently a member of the Cornish semi-acoustic jazz band Gwelhellin Goth http://gwelhellingoth.comhttp://www.myspace.com/gwelhellin, and the Russian folk-music duo Muzika Muzikantov.
Writing
Coudrille took up the writing and illustration of children's books as a form of occupational therapy, while recovering from spinal damage. This unexpected turn of events led to him becoming an award-winning author and illustrator.The illustrated alphabet A Beastly Collection was published in 1974 by Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
, the publishers of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
. The book received critical acclaim, and was compared to the work of John Tenniel
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of England’s 19th century. Tenniel is considered important to the study of that period’s social, literary, and art histories...
.
His second book Farmer Fisher (1975) was a best seller, winning the UK Children's Book of The Year award in 1976. Farmer Fisher is thought to have been the first picture book on the UK market to include a record (7-inch vinyl disc). It was republished in 1978 by Puffin Books
Puffin Books
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.-Early history:...
, and in 2010 by Footsteps Press.