Huddersfield artist and lifelong Manchester City fan Geoff Wood has painted portraits of some of the country’s top Premier League footballers – but his latest exhibition has taken a different turn.
His exhibition, Thank Heaven For Little Girls, is now being staged at Huddersfield Golf Club at Lightridge Road, Fixby, all this week until Sunday evening.
It was unveiled on Friday at a preview night attended by Emmerdale actress Emma Atkins and opened by the golf club’s first Lady President Sue Johnson.
Geoff has been a member at the club for 19 years.
Among the exhibits will be paintings of Geoff’s granddaughter Alex, pictures of pop icons Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston along with screen legend Marilyn Monroe and Romeo and Juliet, a work originally commissioned by the Northern Ballet.
Entry is free and a percentage of the proceeds from sales will go to this year’s captains charity, Crohns and Colitis UK.
There was a time when the suggestion of holding an art exhibition at a golf club would not have gone down well with the membership … as Geoff discovered when he first mooted the idea soon after joining the club nearly 20 years ago.
“It was kyboshed,” he said. “I don’t think the powers-that-be liked the idea of lots of outsiders turning up at the club and wandering into the clubhouse to view an art exhibition, but times are changing for golf clubs.
“They already have two of my paintings and some cartoons in the clubhouse, so a couple of months ago, I thought, ‘Why not approach them again?’ This time the answer was yes.”
Geoff, 70, moved to Huddersfield in 1993 and soon linked up with the commercial team at Huddersfield Town, painting portraits of the guest speakers at Town’s gentlemen’s dinners.
“I did the paintings in advance and they were then signed and auctioned at the dinner,” he said. “Half the proceeds went to Town and half to the charity, so everyone was happy.”
