famous individuals. Many of his paintings showed suburban settings in which unexpected human dramas occurred, some of them humorous and some frightening. Each painting's location was chosen specifically for its abstract structure; the locations were usually actual places, but the figures were imagined and "gr[e]w under the brush". Weight wrote that his art was "concerned with such things as anger, love, hate, fear and loneliness", and said, "for me the acid test of a painting is: will the ordinary chap get anything out of this?" He was prolific, and typically painted 50 paintings in a year. Weight was an instructor, mentor and good friend to John Bratby and Jean Cooke. Weight died on 13 August 1997 at the age of 88. Works by Weight are owned by the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Imperial War Museum and feature in the United Kingdom Government Art Collection. David Bowie bought and owned Carel Weight's Laertes (1979) as part of his private collection. Keith Waterhouse uses the strand of sinister suburbia in Weight's work as a metaphor for the narrator's mistress in Waterhouse's 1988 novel "Our Song". Awards and honours 1955 Associate member of the Royal Academy. 1962 CBE 1965 Full member of the Royal Academy. 1982 Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University 1983 Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University 1984 Senior member of the Royal Academy. 1995 Companion of Honour References External links Works by Weight in the Tate collection. 1908 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English painters Academics of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Artists from London British Army personnel of World War II British war artists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English male painters People from Paddington Royal Academicians Royal Engineers soldiers World War II artists 20th-century English male artists