Jarman was the world’s leading gay filmmaker of his day, was an inspiration to a generation.

Born in 1942, Jarman studied painting at the Slade School in London. His interest in costume and set design took him first to the Royal Ballet and then to the Coliseum in 1968 to work on a production of Don Govanni. His first work in film was as the production designer on Ken Russell’s The Devils in 1970.

In 1980 he made several short films including his first pop promo, with Marianne Faithful. In 1984 the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London held a retrospective of Jarman’s paintings and in the same year he made a short film inspired by a trip to the Soviet Union entitled 'Imagining October'.

In 1986 Caravaggio was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival which took him seven years to create. In 1988 Jarman directed War Requiem, based on Benjamin Britten’s work and featuring the last screen appearance of Laurence Olivier.

Jarman directed the stage show of The Pet Shop Boys World Tour in 1989.

The following year saw the production of The Garden, the making of which is chronicled in Modern Nature, a collection of Jarman’s journals which also begins to record his personal struggle against the effects of the AIDS virus.

However, this was not to hinder his work and, in an astounding burst of energy as his final, and most challenging film was Blue. It was screened at the 1993 New York Film Festival in November where Jarman received a standing ovation.

Derek Jarman's last paintings - full of rage, joy, and an unquenchable optimism despite his treatment for Aids - have been assembled to celebrate the reopening of the Metropole arts centre at Folkestone, Kent. The centre looks across the bay to Jarman's last home, Prospect Cottage on the shingle beach at Dungeness.

The avant garde artist found inspiration at Dungeness, where he created a shingle garden from debris he found on the beach.

It was the wind-swept beauty of this remote corner of the Kent that Jarman loved, turning washed up rubbish into artistic treasures.

Proudly and openly gay, he moved to Dungeness as he battled against aids finding solace in his garden.

Prospect Cottage: 360°
Prospect Cottage: map

Derek Jarman died of complications from AIDS on February 19, 1994.

His famous and much photographed garden has been seen by millions, but the interior of Prospect Cottage has remained closed to prying eyes as the private home of Jarman's partner.

Since his death in 1994 his reputation as a painter has been eclipsed by the renown of his films, and his improbable final incarnation as a gardener in the diaries and film whereby he chronicled the creation of Prospect Cottage's garden out of driftwood, beach pebbles, and plants dauntless enough to survive the whipping wind and salt spray.