Artist, born in Northampton, who obtained a national diploma in design, painting, at Coventry College of Art, 1958–62. At Coventry a fellow-student was Roger Jeffs, and together they had a show, A New Kind of Brightness, at the Umbrella Club, Coventry, in 1961. In that year Bowstead took part in Eclectics at Nottingham Art Gallery and exhibited in Midland Young Contemporaries, also in Nottingham. In 1962 Bowstead shared a show at ICA with Maurice Agis, David Hockney and Peter Phillips and was included in an Arts Council tour selected from Young Contemporaries. Arts Council acquired Bowstead’s oil on board The Language of Love, of that year. Bowstead attended the Slade School of Fine Art, 1963–4. In the latter year he, Jeffs and two other Slade students, Terry Atkinson and Bernard Jennings, formed Fine Artz, which produced the work Action Chair.