Realistic painter, born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, who studied at the Art School at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 1963, where he eventually settled, attending Slade School of Fine Art for a term in 1964. He then worked on his own, exploring various styles including abstraction, but on seeing a Rembrandt exhibition in the Netherlands in 1968 decided to abandon painting, entering an Anglican order as a novice, remaining for five years. In 1978 Couch, supported by a small legacy, took a house in Brighton and set himself to work out a style under the influence of Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. Regulation of the quality of light was of key importance in Couch’s pictures: still lifes, figure studies and self-portraits. He believed that “painting should look ordinary, part of everyday experience,” defining a good work of art as a “perfect balance of intellect, spirit, emotion and body.