My father, David Macfarlane, who has died aged 92, was the consummate artist and educator, utterly committed to his own practice and to sharing his passion for the arts. From 1966 until 1989 he was a lecturer in fine art at Somerset College of Arts and Technology, in Taunton, where his teachings encompassed his interests in avant-garde film, poetry, classical and modern music and literature, interwoven with the history of art.
David’s work was intensely personal and reflected a keenly observed view of the world around him. The early 1960s, when he began his teaching career, was characterised by a radical break with tradition in the visual arts; David invited the conceptual artists Rose Finn-Kelcey, Ian Breakwell and John Hilliard to be visiting lecturers. These radical figures exerted a powerful influence on students such as Richard Deacon and Angela Bulloch.
