West Pier Brighton

                      Screen print 445 mm x 590 mm Ed.75 1968

                              T H Saunders Hot press 180 g/m

              Col: Birmingham AG       Col. Lord Attenborough 1968

Geoffrey Elliott was born in Derbyshire in 1935 where he studied art. After gaining an art teachers" diploma from Brighton College of Art, then joining the army for two years of national service. On returning to the UK he taught at the Brighton college of Art from 1959 to 1961 and again from 1964 to 1975, during which time he notched up several exhibitions in Brighton, Sussex, and London experimenting in oils, acrylics. watercolour, drawing, lithography and screenprints. In 1983. Geoffrey emigrated to Queensland. Australia where he continues to work. You emigrated to Australia in 1983, where you've lived ever since. Why is life in Australia better than Brighton? "I travelled around Australia for nine months on my own. The original idea was to go to India and look at temples and bits of sculpture and to absorb the culture, but a change of plan saw me in Australia. Britain, on the whole, is more grey than blue and the reverse is true here. I went to Perth, Adelaide. Melbourne. Sydney. Brisbane, then up to Townsville. Cairns. It was like stepping back 30 years. The weather was beautiful , and it seemed to be a really laid back place." Do you ever get nostalgic for Britain? I’ve been back to the UK once in 23 years but it's just like putting an old, comfortable overcoat on, and you just go straight back to being at home again." What do you miss most about Brighton? “It's my spiritual home! It's very cosmopolitan and its forgiving and accepting, which is quite an unusual thing for a town in the UK. It has wonderful architecture - those Regency squares. and the way that the city was planned is quite beautiful. And there's this wonderful reflected light off the sea that seems to fill the air. I still have friends in Brighton . So I just love the place." After you got your art teacher's diploma, you went into the army to complete your national service. How did those two years change your perspective on life? Basic training was almost like being in prison. The idea was to get you really fit. which worked. You didn't have to think about getting food or anything, so for me. coming out of studying, it was quite a holiday. "I was in the infantry in the Wiltshire regiment and I was put into several months training as a junior officer: There was army drilling and learning about weapons and various other things that were top secret. Then I was moved into intelligence, which took me to Cyprus. while they were in the middle of having terrorist problems - the odd shooting or the odd bomb, "Even during the troubles, I could get afternoons off when I could paint. I used to go to the port at Famagusta and paint ships and ruins, and the supposed enemy would buy my pictures. I would think, why are we here? They were such friendly, nice people." What made you return to the Brighton College of Art in1959 after the army? "I was originally going to study at the Royal College of Art for two or three years after I left the army,but I was offered a part-time teaching job in Brighton again. which gave me free time to travel up to London and study in the galleries.' How did your Brighton and Hove screen prints come about? “When I returned to teach at Brighton Art College a second time in the mid-60s someone in the printmaking department suggested I should go and see Terry Benton who was one of the directors of print publishers Editions Alecto in London, He said. 'I think you should do a set of prints featuring Brighton’. I spent a year working on them and did about ten different prints but, just as I was completing them, Terry went to America and I was !eft to sell my work on my own. One of the first purchasers was the Brighton Art Gallery. for the picture-lending scheme they had at the time. From that. I won a travelling scholarship to Italy and I did a set of screen prints on my return. In previous years I had travelled to Malta and Greece and had done preliminary drawings, for prints and paintings After you emigrated, it took you a while to adjust to the Australian light. When did you change how you viewed the landscape? "There was this house called Kath's Place. It was a modern kit home built with a veranda facing down a gully with a creek at the bottom. I could see the creek through the gums trees, and on the other side there were tracks with cattle pasture .There was no-one living there at the time and I painted there for nine months. When I first got there it was summer and the light was so intense, but I was sheltered from It as the sun travelled behind me. so it was like being hidden in a bird hide. I went from not being able to paint this intense light to interpreting the colour in the landscape so that it was alive - painting in a far higher key.” If you could sum up Brighton in one image, what would that be? “The Royal Pavilion is quite unique. I used to take my students in there drawing countless times. I've also had great interest in the West Pier over the years. because I did a print of it when it was still okay. When I was working on it. Sir Richard Attenborough was filming Oh What a Lovely War on it, and he bought a print from me of the pier which was rather nice. They still feature it on the news here, when another bit falls into the sea."

Australian & Brighton, Biographical notes / Brighton Prints by Viv Craske

                        Brighton & Hove Life magazine March 06

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