TRIBUTES have been paid to an artist who died at a Hampshire art gallery.

J Richard Plincke collapsed on Saturday, September 8, in The Minster Gallery, in Winchester, after battling with a heart condition for several years.

Mr Plincke, who was born Woldingham, Kent, in 1928 and lived in St Mary Bourne at the time of his death, began painting and drawing early in his childhood.

His love of art and creativity was influenced by his education at Stowe School, where he was encouraged to study architecture.

He trained for an architectural diploma at the Architectural Association, London, and began practicing in the captial city initially before marrying in 1970 and the pair then moved to the Bourne Valley.

In 1972, together with John Browning and Keith Leaman he established Plincke, Leaman & Browning in the Square Winchester, a highly successful and award-winning architectural practice.

Mr Plincke initally combined his love of experimental and abstract painting with his architectural career, gradually becoming an increasingly successful artist, finally relinquishing his architectural partnership in 1987.

He was elected to the Royal Institute of British Watercolours in 1984 and exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on a number of occasions.

During his many years as a painter his award winning work was exhibited both nationally and internationally, he tutored popular art courses for colleges and art societies in the UK.

His work was printed in numerous art books and magazines and he appeared on a BBC documentary series about artists.

In tribute, his family said: “Richard was a slightly eccentric, well-loved member of his local community and his loss has been significantly felt by his local, artistic and wider friends and family.”

He is survived by his widow, two children and four grandchildren.