My husband, Ciarán “KO” Ennis, who has died aged 83, was a printmaker whose company produced posters and record covers for artists such as Paul McCartney, Lou Reed and Van Morrison in the 1960s and 70s. In the second half of his life he drew on this experience to become a long-serving printmaking tutor in adult education.
It was a chance introduction to Mick Jagger and David Bailey that led KO to set up Blue Egg Printing and Design in the late 60s. From studios in north and west London, Blue Egg (later Leisure Print) also produced work for the Who, Monty Python and many others, much of it through the music promoter Harvey Goldsmith.
However, KO was not a natural businessman, and the demands of running the company, as well as the ending of his first marriage, led him to start a new chapter in Guildford, Surrey.
Born Ciarán in Dublin, but known as KO by many since his schooldays, he was the second of eight children of Eileen (nee Bailey) and Thomas Ennis, a coin meter collector. Both were involved in the scouting movement, and they instilled a strong moral compass in their son.
He was an accomplished junior swimmer, taking part in the Liffey Swim, and made headlines when twice he saved people from drowning in that same river. He also played rugby as scrum half, but equally was a beatnik who rode a motorcycle and enjoyed playing jazz with his friends.
After Synge Street school and an art foundation at Trinity College Dublin, he won a scholarship to attend Edinburgh College of Art. Following graduation in the mid-60s, he returned to Ireland with his first wife and their young family to work on a painting commission in Skerries, before moving to north London in 1968, where he taught at a private school in Barnet while also trying to make it as an artist. It happened that their neighbour was the jazz trumpeter Ian Carr, and it was through him that KO got his first work for the Rolling Stones.
In the mid-70s he moved to Guildford with his children, eventually selling Leisure Print. While attending sculpture classes at Harvey Road adult education centre, he was asked to run a printmaking course there. Always reaching out, Ciarán (as he was better known during this period of his life) also started printmaking classes at Send prison in Woking. Instantly recognisable with signature cap, red beard and snappy sense of style, many of his students became friends and one, me, his wife, in 1991.
I think fondly of meeting this energetic, enigmatic, bohemian artist amid the commuter belt of Surrey. We settled in Eton, Berkshire, and shared 37 years in conversation together. Ciarán retired from teaching in 2005, when cooking became his main creative focus. He kept up an interest in art, theatre, rugby and swimming – a proud Irishman, his support for the United Ireland Rugby team was almost as obsessive as his love for the water.
I survive him, as do his son and daughter, two grandchildren, and four of his siblings.
