The obituary notice of Aidan DOYLE

I remember Aidan teaching a workshop in my school over a decade ago about incorporating the local history of coal industry with artwork. The passionate discussions he had with the class stay with me 15 odd years later. He was a close friend of my dad's and the local community will definitely feel his loss.

I remember Aidan teaching a workshop in my school over a decade ago about incorporating the local history of coal industry with artwork. The passionate discussions he had with the class stay with me 15 odd years later. He was a close friend of my dad's and the local community will definitely feel his loss.

Aidan was truly a most wonderful man. He would tell me his stories and sing. I have many of his fine art works that I treasure. I have known him since we were both at Winchester School Of Art 50 years ago. I am so glad that we had a reunion together with Clare, Mick and Steve who also were his Winchester friends. I will miss him forever. This is what I want to say about my beautiful Aidan… When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of
dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

Aidan was a good friend and an uncompromising artist who stayed true to his artistic vision. His morality and sense of decency and his commitment to a vision of a fairer society will continue to resonate. From the first time we met, around a simple bonfire in Winchester in the early 1970's to the last time I visited him in his Newcastle studio a couple of years ago, he was always the same generous spirited, inquisitive, critical, playful and thoughtful man. He will be missed by many and remembered with great affection.