ALTHOUGH it’s painted white the big curving wall in the foyer of the Lawrence Batley Theatre is not the easiest space for an artists to make an impact.
But retired art teacher Geof Hickey has managed it with three big landscape triptychs.
His one-man exhibition at the theatre is titled Storms and Skies and follows the artists’s Elements of Landscapes, staged in Holmfirth last year.
He said: “This year I decided to return to a previous body of work, with paintings inspired by the ‘big skies’ above the moors in our local environment and in the Scottish Borders.’’
Using collage, acrylics and mixed media, the painter shows the landscape itself becoming less important than the sky above.
Geof adds: “I have been fascinated by the form and formation of cloud, particularly during the months of excessive rainfall we have experienced during this year.
“The paintings are more decorative than attempts to record accurate detail and are impressions and abstractions derived in the main from my observations, particularly the moors around and above the local district.’’
Geof taught art in Kirklees for 35 years and since his retirement has returned to the production and promotion of his own work.
He was a founder member of the Kirklees Art Action Group and the Eastthorpe Gallery in Mirfield.
Also, for more than 25 years, he has been involved in promoting the work of artists, colleagues and students.
