In his own words………
Notes for a Previous Exhibition – Geoffrey writes a short biography:
“I started painting when I was very young, about 7, encouraged by my parents who must have been driven mad by my endless bits of paper.
Later at school I was helped by a teacher, Edward Monkton who was an excellent watercolourist and exhibited in Sydney. He guided me in my selection of colours and their mixing and his influence is probably seen in my work. Through him I met John D Moore, a leading Sydney artist at that time and he also gave me help.
For a few years after school I painted small landscapes and watercolour sketches of birds.
In 1950 I took up my own property on the Mann River and so painting was neglected. We eventually moved to Queensland and while recovering from an illness I met Alex Rotteveel, the art teacher at Maryborough Girls High, and under his guidance started painting and drawing again. He introduced me to oil painting.
After moving back to the Clarence Valley in 1970 I joined the Lower Clarence Art Group and painted regularly. However this took second place to a small prawn trawler I was building and launched in 1975. This I worked mainly at sea for 10 years when we moved to Tullymorgan and I retired to concentrate on painting.
I went back to watercolour my first love. I also resumed my interest in birds and in 1987 after several months training under the guidance of David Geering, Greg Clancy and Bill Lane I got my ‘A Class’ bander’s licence. This enables me to see at first hand, detail of the birds I catch. I usually do a quick sketch of particular birds with notes on colour etc. These I use for my paintings as I find photographs usually disappointing.
Some of the paintings exhibited are by-products of a weeks bird banding at Mootwingee National Park where I took time of to do some sketches. “Blue Bonnets” is a result of this trip. All the other birds are species found locally. I tend to work watercolours dry, with exceptions, mainly to the honour of a lot of tutors. I tend to think that the little spots of paper that get missed add a sparkle to the painting. Sometimes I might have three lots of colour and three brushes which I use together. I am not worried about floating one wash on top of another and I might do up to seven or eight……….”.
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- Writers:
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Katwood
- Date written:
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