Jonathon Xavier Coudrille

Background

His father was the Artist and Television Ventriloquist and film maker Francis Coudrill.

Education

Coudrille studied painting with the leading English surrealist John Tunnard at the Penzance School of Art, where Tunnard taught from 1945 to 1965.

Career

Born in November 1945 at Landewednack, the Lizard, Cornwall, he travelled with his parents while his artist father built a career in Variety Theatre, moving to Television in 1950. Coudrille’s first education was at the Grey Cottage dame school in the Cotswolds and after a short spell at Davenie's prep school in Beaconsfield, attended Holtspur School. The family divided their time between Buckinghamshire, Saint Ives in Cornwall, where they ran the duchy’s first folk club, and the Lizard Peninsula, an area with which Coudrille is still closely associated, having lived on the Cadgwith Cliffs from 1989. With Barrie Cooke and Vince Tutton he founded The Peninsula Fine arts Society, now Lizard Arts and was its second chairman.. In 2011 he founded the Lizard Stuckists. With notable contributions in a number of fields, Jonathon Coudrille can be described as a polymath. (Wikipedia)

Broadcasting: After attending the Royal Grammar School and High Wycombe school of Art from 1957 to 1961, in ’64 Coudrille originated and played the music for his father’s animated cartoon series “Hank”. He started out in broadcasting at the age of 17, appearing as a political satirist on both British Broadcasting Corporation Plymouth and the local commercial station Westward Television, which gave him his own show entitled Young Tomorrow.

He also worked on the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio's Today programme, under the aegis of Jack de Manio, moving to Southern Television initially as singing commentator and, musical Director, recording his guitar arrangement as the theme for Jack Hargreaves ‘Out ofTown’. However, his career in broadcasting was abruptly cut short by a car accident in 1972, which temporarily crippled him with spinal damage. During his incapacity he wrote and illustrated “A Beastly Collection”. his ink drawings were compared to the work of Tenniel. in 1974 he received the Melody Maker folk-rock top soloist award. In the ‘80s he premiered his Caballetta suite for Spanish Guitar with the National Symphony Ochestra at London's Festival Hall and toured the world with the Kazatka Cossacks. He still performs locally with his jazz-gypsy mix trio Gwelhellin Goth and plays the Organ in the Grade-Ruan Parish Church.

Art: During the 1990s, Coudrille exhibited in various solo and group shows, 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. He is an Academician and past trustee of the South West Academy and a member of Chelsea arts Club.

Some of his recent work, most notably the photographic montage Analogue of Surreal Nostalgia (2005), and his major oil Kynance Winter Tide are in the permanent collection of Falmouth Art Gallery. He lives with his fifth wife, his daughter is an international executive recruitment manager in London and his son a security expert in New York USA

Achievements

• His second book Farmer Fisher (1975) was a best seller, winning the United Kingdom Children"s Book of The Year award in 1976.

Works

• book

  • Love, Death and, Bad Behaviour

    (A collection of poems written over sixty years thoughtful...)

Religion

Disturbed that the Church of England, riven with scandals from which it has still to recover, has neglected Belief in favour of a corporate approach to administration that has involved the removal of stipendiary clergy from the Parishes and, failing to appreciate the gravitas and majesty of its hallowed traditions, has attempted to woo Youth with eased Commandments and dilute Devotional Skiffle.

Politics

He continued with musical political satire when he moved from the British Broadcasting Corporation to Southern Television, where he was given a Monday news magazine slot, and was later the station"s musical director for a period. Coudrille was interviewed about his life and paintings for the programme John Nettles" Westcountry, broadcast by the Artsworld channel, now known as Sky Arts.

Membership

He is currently an Academician of the South West Academy, member of the Society of Authors, the Musician’s union, Grade-Ruan Parochial Church Council a member of Chelsea Arts Club, director and member of the Cornish semi-acoustic jazz band Gwelhellin Goth.

Connections

With a son in New York by his late first wife, a daughter in London by the second, he is married to his fifth wife

References

• Coudrille An interview with John Nettles for Sky Arts.