Obituary: David Wood, artist and playwright

David Wood, who has died at 83, was not only a well-known landscape artist and art teacher whose pupils included Damien Hirst, but also a playwright with a theatre bearing his name at the arts group he founded in West Yorkshire.

He taught at Manygates School, Wakefield, before becoming head of art and drama at Allerton Grange High School in Leeds.

As an artist, he exhibited in Leeds, York, Scarborough, Ilkley, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Hull and in Germany.

Additionally, under the pen name David Foxton, he turned out more than 80 plays, from the serious to the comic, and contributed to amateur and professional companies – in particular, the Dewsbury Arts Group, which he founded.

Both Mr Wood and his wife, Judith, were awarded the MBE in 2002 for their services to the arts in the town, where the David and Judith Wood Theatre stands on Lower Peel Street.

Judith survives him, with their sons, Richard and Andrew.

Obituary: David Wood, artist and playwright

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