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The Artist and His
Stories
The Artist
Jeff Gilberthorpe was
born in England, and after a childhood of constant relocation
and war time evacuation, his family settled into the village of
Ford, in Shropshire. It was here that Jeff’s first exhibition
was held, with sixteen small paintings depicting Wild English
Birds.
The paintings were very
much influenced by Charles Tunnicliffe, Peter Scott and Vernon
Ward, three well known artists at that time.
Under the guidance of
his mother, who herself was a gifted artist, Jeff spent most of
his spare time outdoors armed with sketch pad and a tiny box of
watercolours. He freely admits that he only drew and painted
for the fun of it.
Around this time, Jeff
was introduced to a well known lady artist, who invited him to
accompany her on her daily walks. “I’m not going to teach you
to paint” she said, “you can do that already. No, I’m going to
teach you how to look, and how to feel, and how to appreciate
this fascinating world of ours”.
For nine months, Jeff
did not touch a paint brush or pencil. Instead, he picked up
bits of wood, leaves, stones, let soil trickle through his
fingers, hugged trees, listened to the wind and stood out in the
rain and snow. Months went by, then one day she said to him
“paint me a picture”. The result was surprising.
“It painted
itself”, Jeff said. “You are now an artist”, she said.
“Now
it’s up to you”.
Between 1960 and 1963,
Jeff completed his compulsory National Service with the RAF.
Here, he was introduced to a completely different world from the
limited environment of a sleepy little village.
In 1964-65, he attended
Art College, where his rebellious nature did not mix well with
the various art movements of the time, and they soon parted
company. During this time, Jeff met his match whilst
hospitalised with a broken leg. Helen, his nurse, would soon
become his bride after a romantic courtship. They were married
in July 1966, and soon afterwards Jeff rejoined the RAF,
allowing him to return to Cyprus where Simon and Emma, two of
his three children were born. Throughout this time, Jeff had a
number of one man shows in Cyprus.
In 1974, after ten
halcyon years, he left the RAF to pursue a teaching career,
gaining a first at Nottingham University. Graduation brought him
to a teaching post at an all boys school in Kent. Here, Jeff
penned his novel “Furfield” and his second daughter Lucy was
born, completing the Gilberthorpe family.
Perth, Australia was
the first port of call in Australia for the young immigrants,
and whilst teaching at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Jeff was
offered a job in Queensland. Packing his young family into a VW
Combi Van, Jeff set forth across the vast Nullabor Plain and
arrived on the Queensland Gold Coast seven days later. Here he
spent the following years teaching and painting.
The family returned to
England in 1987 and Jeff taught at schools in Lancashire.
To realise his dream of
painting full time, Jeff returned to Australia, a journey that
would change his life forever… An innocent Sunday drive up Mt.
Tamborine and a comment from his wife, proved to be the
inspiration for his initial series of paintings depicting an old
wooden Queenslander house being plucked from a flooded valley
suspended by hot air balloons….. The natural, however somewhat
excentric extension became ‘The Icon Collection’.
During this time, a
chance meeting with Kirsten and Ulrich Buchholtz proved to be
the break an artist can only hope for. Enthusiastic about the
idea and the art, the entrepreneurial couple from Hong Kong were
swept away with the originality and fun of the story.
CreaTechArt Gallery and through it ‘The Icon Collection’
adventure commenced its ever exciting journey…..
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