Thomas John Coates RWS, PRBA, RP

1941 - 2023

Born into a poor household in Aston, Birmingham, Tom Coates was a committed runner and goalkeeper, playing for the local team. He studied at Bournville College of Art and Birmingham College of Art, moving to the Royal Academy Schools, where he cleaned the studios while studying to pay his way, taking scrapings from his fellow students' palettes to have oil paint to work. With the Principal, Sir Henry Rushbury's support, Coates won several prizes and scholarships during his studies. As well as showing widely in solo and mixed exhibitions, Coates was a member of several art societies and President of some, an artist of many subjects and media, technically gifted and with a well-trained appreciation of the anatomy of humans and animals. He carried out a series of prestigious commissions, including one for the Royal Watercolour Society in 1990 to paint the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and in 2000, he was the resident artist with the England cricket team touring South Africa.