Painter, teacher and writer, born Belfast, moved to Glasgow when still small. He studied architecture at the School of Art, 1957–9, part-time while working for an architect; he adopted a similar procedure at Regent Street Polytechnic, 1959–60, when working for London County Council. Upon moving to Edinburgh, 1961–4, to study philosophy and psychology at the University, Gouk began to paint in an Abstract Expressionist style. From 1964–7 he worked for the British Council. From 1967, when he began to lecture at St Martin’s School of Art, where he eventually became head of advanced painting and sculpture, Gouk could concentrate fully on his painting. Moving away from acrylics to oils from the mid-1970s, Gouk was concerned to avoid flatness in painting, exploring pictorial space created by colour in wide canvases and using a heavy impasto.