I have been mourning the death of Gillian Ayres, an RA, although in recent years not a very active one, because in Devon and temperamentally not at all keen on committees or, indeed, organisations (she briefly resigned over Sensation);  but even in Devon, and especially on her occasional visits to show work at Alan Cristea, she managed to convey a smoky joie-de-vivre, vitality and moral support.   I wrote an introduction to an exhibition held not long ago in Beijing and realised what a life force and art force she had been from the time she went to Camberwell alongside Howard Hodgkin, teaching at Corsham, again alongside Hodgkin, working on the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales (I sadly missed her recent exhibition at the National Museum of Wales), before moving to north Devon.   A great painter and a great loss.