His personal charm, articulate mind and generosity of spirit made him an ideal ambassador for young artists and for the avant-garde cause. Between 1956 and 1966 he directed the New Vision Centre Gallery downstairs in the building near Marble Arch where he would live for the rest of his life. Like many painters Bowen often taught in an adjacent department to painting, in his case that of Industrial Design; this led to his later use of metallic car sprays and fluorescent paints.His style matured neither in an ivory tower nor in a cultural vacuum. He read enthusiastically about contemporary French painting in the periodicals Art d'Aujourd'hui and Cimaise.

The wartime experience of the dark, fathomless waters of Portsmouth harbour at night seen from the deck of his frigate imprinted itself on his imagination - the ambiguous spatial continuum between sea and sky pierced by broad searchlight beams. Many of Bowen's drawings and paintings of the early 1950s used this source both as theme and iconographic device.Bowen's teaching career began in the Interior Design department at Kingston School of Art. His awareness of paint as a deliciously tactile, fluid substance capable of a range of expression beyond the merely descriptive ensured his involvement with the burgeoning avant-garde of the early 1950s.However, Bowen's awareness of nature - particularly the spectacular light effects of skies at dusk - also brought a romanticism to his work. He grew up with relations first in Manchester, then with an aunt in Huddersfield. Showing precocious artistic talent, Bowen entered Huddersfield Art School in 1936, where his tutor, the Royal College-trained painter Reginald Napier, directed him towards the RCA in London. The Second World War put Bowen's art education on hold; but after serving in the Navy, with which he travelled on Atlantic convoys and on trips to the Far East, he entered the RCA in 1946.Despite his encountering tutors like Carel Weight, Robert Buhler and John Minton, who were figurative painters, Bowen's tendency was to experiment with the pure processes of painting.

Denis Bowen, painter, teacher, gallery director and critic: born Kimberley, South Africa 5 April 1921; twice married (one daughter); died London 23 March 2006. For over 50 years Denis Bowen was a leading proponent of informal abstract painting in Britain. His painting adhered to the existential freedom and automatic procedures of "Tachism" and "Gesturalism". In later years he marshalled the energetic blobs, splashes and dribbles of poured or sprayed paint towards a cosmological symbolism expressive of phenomena like eclipses, supernovae, galactic explosions or volcanic eruptions - themes that bridged the gap between art and science, and expressed his interest in the revelations and discoveries of the Space Age. Bowen was born the son of a Welsh farmer in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1921.

However, critics claim its drive for skills will mean courses in the arts and humanities being neglected. At present, it claims, half a million students in colleges are taught in underperforming colleges. As a result, it proposes to a crackdown on poor standards - insisting that all inadequate or satisfactory college provision should improve during the next two years. If they fail, they will face closure or take-over by another provider - possibly a private company. In addition, the Learning and Skills Council, the body with responsibility for financing post-16 education, will be given new powers to force governing bodies to sack weak college principals.

"Our goal is to eliminate inadequate or unsatisfactory provision ... by 2008 and have a major impact on those organisations where performance is just satisfactory or not showing any improvement," the White Paper argues. Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, described the White Paper as a "missed opportunity" which meant further education was "still the disadvantaged child between compulsory schooling and higher education".. The White Paper describes its aims as an attempt to ensure "further education gains the esteem it deserves as the engine room of a successful economy with the power to transform lives".