A British artist and children’s author has drowned in a mountain waterfall while on holiday in the Philippines.

Richard Kidd, 56, of Gateshead, died on Saturday afternoon after being sucked under the Dunsulan Falls on Mount Samat in the province of Bataan. His British girlfriend, Ailsa Lamble, and her father, Richard, who were on holiday with Mr Kidd, attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate him for an hour.

“As soon as Kidd got into the water into what looked like a basin, he was sucked straight and could no longer come up,” Mr Lamble told the Manila Times.

Ms Lamble, 25, a former student of fine art at Newcastle University, told the newspaper: “I was swimming with my boyfriend but I got into the woods and when I came back I saw my father trying to pull him out of the water. I ran away to get a stick and when I returned with the stick my father told me to ask for help.

“My father and two men from the village applied CPR for almost an hour,” she added, as she embraced Mr Kidd’s body in a mortuary in the town of Balanga. Three and a half hours after the accident, at 7.30pm, he was declared dead.

Mr Kidd was a well-known local artist and the author of several children's books, including Almost Famous Daisy!. He was born and grew up in Tyneside and studied fine art at Newcastle University, where he returned after living in London and New York.

An statement by the artist posted on the Stour Gallery website read: “My paintings are about remote, mountainous landscapes because that's where I feel most at home. Georges Braque once said 'Making a painting is like taking a journey'. This seems to me to be a fitting comparison. Sometimes you know where you're going. The route is planned. Other times you get lost, perhaps deliberately, and end up somewhere totally unexpected.”

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