Painter and teacher, born in Grasmere, Westmorland, who lived for a time at Ambleside, Cumbria. He studied at Lancaster School of Art, 1964–5, and Goldsmiths’ College of Art, 1965–9, winning a Boise Travelling Scholarship, 1969–70. He held a Karolyi Foundation in France in 1976, followed by a fellowship at VCCA in Virginia, 1981, won a Northern Art Bursary in 1982 and was visiting lecturer at Sunderland Polytechnic the same year. Cooper’s series of pictures Under the Volcano, based on the novel by Malcolm Lowry, was important and was featured in Summer Show 2 at Serpentine Gallery, 1983. Other group exhibitions included RA Summer Exhibition, 1972; Deck of Cards, JPL Fine Art, 1976; and Northern Open at Ceolfrith Gallery, Sunderland, 1982.