Peter Leonard Folkes (November 1923 - January 2019)
He was born in Beaminster, Dorset in November 1923. Folkes trained as a painter at the West of England College of Art, Bristol between 1941 -50. His studies were interrupted by military service in the Second World War, during which he served as a draughtsman in the Royal Corps of Signals in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, and was mentioned in despatches.
From 1950 – 1964 he as Senior Art Master at King Edward VI School in Southampton. In 1952 he was elected an Associate of the Royal West of England Academy and a full Academician in 1959. He was a Council Member twice (1987 -90 & 1991 – 94). In 1963 Peter Folkes was awarded a Goldsmiths Travelling Scholarship when he travelled to the USA and the paintings he completed there had a lasting influence on his work. In 1969 he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of
Painters in Watercolours and he became vice-president in 1989. He held a solo exhibition at Gainsborough House, Sudbury, Suffolk and at the RWA, Bristol. He has also shown at the RA, RI and with the Bath Society of Artists. He was Lecturer at Southampton College of Art 1964 – 78 and Head of Fine Art, at Southampton Institute of Higher Education (Later to become Southampton Solent University) 1978-89
His Paintings are in many private collections and the collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain, The Government Art Collection, Southampton City Art Gallery, The Royal West of England Academy and the Universities of Hull, Keele, Portsmouth, Southampton (both Southampton and Solent), and King Edward VI School, Southampton.
