The artist Douglas Phillips has sadly passed away at the age of 85. His many works included illustrating stories for The Rover and Victor (one being I Flew With Braddock) and covers for The People's Friend.
His daughter Deborah has kindly provided more information on her father's career:
In addition to being an exceptional painter and illustrator of over 100 children's books, he was also known for documenting old Dundee in his lively pen and ink drawings and his book collaborations with Ron Thomson.
Following army service in India and Ceylon, dad started his artistic career with DC Thomson in the art department illustrating for The Rover and The Victor amongst others - most notably I Flew with Braddock and such real-life stories as "Sink the Bismark" and "The Target was Turin".
After leaving Thomsons, his association with the firm continued as, for over 1000 issues of The People's Friend, he was the pen and brush of J Campbell Kerr.
Latterly he was best known for his evocative landscapes of the Scottish countryside especially his beloved east coast and the Mearns.
He was a gentle man, full of fun, interesting stories and always with a mischievous twinkle in his eye - he will be sadly missed by all who ever met him.
Tragically his death comes a mere 3 weeks after that of his wife Margaret (also formerly of DC Thomson) to whom he was devoted. He leaves behind his daughter Deborah also a painter and his son-in-law Mark who carries on the family tradition as a graphic designer within The Beano.
Douglas Phillips - born Dundee 1926. Died 19th August 2012.
My sincere condolences to the family for their loss and my thanks to Mark and Deborah for providing the text and images for this post.
It's always amazing to put a face to one of the (at the time) most recognisable artists in the UK - forget his comic work (which looks great) but "Peoples Friend" sold by the ton and was always in shops, houses. dentists etc - nice blog - McS
ReplyDeleteFantastic piece, Lew. Simply fantastic. Thank you!
ReplyDelete