My father, Mike Cumiskey, was an artist who took commissions and staged exhibitions at the same time as pursuing a more or less full-time career as an art teacher and, latterly, headteacher.
Across his working life Mike, who has died aged 83, held exhibitions at venues such as the Studio Club, the Bluecoat (Liverpool), Uxbridge civic centre, the National Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago and in Stern (Germany), Manchester and Edinburgh.
As a teacher he spent much of his career at Townmead comprehensive school in Hillingdon, north-west London, where he became head until he took early retirement in 1993.
Mike was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, to second-generation Irish/Italian parents, Annunciata (nee Capitano), a housewife, and Joseph Cumiskey, a chef on HMS Indomitable and a butcher. His devout Catholic mother wanted him to become a priest, but Mike found his own path as an atheist and socialist.
After attending St Mary’s college in Middlesbrough, in 1956 he went to Middlesbrough Art College, where he met Sue Taylor. They married in 1960 and had three children.
In 1960 he and Sue moved to Notting Hill, London, so that Mike could pursue his art career. Working a variety of jobs all at the same time to support his young family – as teacher, art seller, art lecturer and waiter – he also managed to reserve one day a week exclusively for his creative work.
In 1966 he spent a period as architectural sculptor for Skelmersdale New Town Corporation, building huge sculptures throughout the town, many of which are still a feature of the landscape.
Later, in 1975, he was selected by the Ronald Tree Foundation to work for a year as a resident artist on the Trinidad campus of the University of West Indies, where he also lectured. The family returned to Britain in 1976 and it was during the following year that he began to work at Townmead. He also accepted guest lecture spots at various institutions, including Bretton Hall College (West Yorkshire), the ICA, the Whitechapel Gallery, and Sussex and Manchester Universities.
In retirement Mike took to writing self-published novels, including An Undiscovered Country (2020), Huntsman (2020), Private Gestures (2017) and Sorry, Picasso (2014). An all-rounder and charismatic renaissance man, he had strong opinions – which he loved sharing – and was generous with advice, gifts, support, stories and well-worn jokes.
He is survived by Sue, his three children, Saul, Paola and me, grandchildren Lucas, Ruby, Fia, Jaspar, Martha and Nell, great-grandson Raymond and his siblings, Peter and Yolanda.
