My wife, Wendy Hoile, who has died aged 77, worked extensively as an illustrator, artist and website designer.
Her colourful illustrations appeared in mainstream magazines and newspapers from Time Out to the Observer, and on book jackets, notably Aké by the Nobel prizewinner Wole Soyinka.
A Wendy Hoile painting used on the cover of Wole Soyinka’s memoir Aké, published in 1981
She was born in Greenford, west London, and grew up in Chiswick, the younger daughter of Dick, an insurance clerk, and Madge, a secretary at Chelsea police station. After Staveley Road school, Wendy completed a foundation course at Twickenham Art College, but at Epsom Art College her paintings were criticised as too figurative, and she dropped out.
Instead, inspired by her elder sister, Linda, who was lead singer of the jazz-rock band Affinity, she moved into music and in 1972 recorded the single Coconut, a Harry Nilsson song, with her own B-side, The Best Thing That Happened to Me. She then toured Italy as Blanch Carter and Her Lounge Lizards. A spell at the Lucie Clayton Model Academy – which taught her “how to get out of a sports car” – provided an entertaining diversion. She also volunteered for the Samaritans.
But then her boyfriend Robert Priest, a new force in magazine design, suggested she try illustration. It worked. From 1973, Wendy’s colourful style and understanding of an article brought her widespread recognition in magazines and newspapers, often as covers. In 1977 she and Robert moved to America to “test the market” there and both enjoyed success.
I met Wendy in New York in 1979, having flown with a bunch of cartoonists on a promotion by the airline boss Freddie Laker that included a party at the Waldorf thrown by Penthouse magazine. I talked to her briefly about life in a busy city.
A magazine cover for the Observer by Wendy Hoile
Feeling homesick, she returned to Britain on her own in 1981. Work soon picked up, with her illustrations adorning even more magazine covers, Chester’s piano books, and many book jackets. In 1984 she won a national illustration prize with a piece of work entitled Once in a Blue Moon, citing Smarties as her colour inspiration. She provided drawings about the 1987 Booker prize novels for the Times; and her colourful still-life paintings, promoted by the Young Artists agency in Camden, became bestselling prints.
Being in the same social circle led us to becoming partners in 1987, and we married in the next year. In 1990, we moved to Wiltshire with our two babies.
Wendy grew passionate about gardening and wildlife. She translated her visual talent into designing websites for local artists such as Michael Simpson, winner of the 2016 John Moores prize and Candace Bahouth, the medieval needle-point specialist and creator of vintage crockery assemblies. She was also a great mother, teaching music and art to our sons. It still seems bizarre to me that we married – but the names “Wendy” and “New York” are synonymous with fairytales.
Wendy is survived by me, our sons, Charlie and Jack, and her elder sister, Linda.
