Pat Cowley enriched the cultural landscape of our city and the lives of those fortunate enough to know him

We recently lost one of the city's most gifted artists, Pat Cowley. As an artist myself, Pat was a deep and profound influence and as a brother-in-law he was the older brother I never had. Pat was not just a brother-in-law he was teacher and mentor, someone I looked up to, someone I respected both as a friend and a professional practising painter.

Pat was a natural teacher. Before retirement he had been head of the art department in St. Peter's School in Creggan, a place he had been raised in and which gave him a world wise grounding that he never lost. Pat was one of those teachers that past pupils would speak of as 'sound' and 'fair' a rare status few teachers achieve and, throughout the years we shared, he had a way of giving me practical pointers on painting technique that were game changers in my own practice.

Recently, shortly after his death, I was walking towards the iconic Buncrana Bridge and I suddenly recalled the painting Pat had done of that beautiful span early on in his career, with wide loose brushstrokes that characterised his early painting style. There was a confident use of hogshead brushes and a sense of place that shone out from all Pat's landscapes throughout his long career as a landscape painter. I can still picture, in my mind's eye, Pats evocative paintings of his home town and his beautiful snow scenes. He was part of a tradition of Irish landscape painting that was all about 'place' and which paid homage to the surrounding wild, natural beauty of our immediate hinterland.

It was that deep sense of place that so influenced the subject matter of his painting. His love and knowledge of not just his home city, Derry but also, the wild corners of Donegal and Inishowen. Knowledgeable would indeed be the word. He knew every byway, field, nook, cranny, beach and river of those places, especially the rivers. He was a keen fisherman and would wax lyrically about a certain type of 'fly' he had used to land a trout. That was another facet, a sense of humour that would call out the pompous or seriousness of the world and leave it flat and less scary. You were guaranteed a laugh with Pat no matter the situation. He knew its power to lighten hearts, to dispel doubt and illuminate dark days. His was the comforting whisper in the ear at gravesides when it was most needed.

Pat's paintings also adorned the pages of publications and he was much sough after by writers who knew their words would be so much the richer for being positioned next to or below their writing. His many published paintings record the landscape of his life and above all it is his extraordinary landscape paintings of the North-West region of Ireland that will be his greatest legacy. In later years he, and my sister Christine, acquired and established the Cowley Gallery which still runs today and is situated in the Craft Village.

Pat Cowley was an accomplished, gifted professional artist who enriched not just the cultural landscape of our city but also the lives of all those who were fortunate enough to know him. I will miss him. My thoughts are with his immediate surviving family his wife, Christine, daughters; Clair and Deidre and son Eoghan and their late daughter, Jennifer. Rest in peace Pat.