Geoffrey Elliott is a relatively little-known British artist and that is a pity as his wonderfully coloured lithographs are great examples of the excellent prints made during the 1960s and 1970s. Elliott was born in 1935. He studied at both the Derby and the Brighton College of Art. Later he was a teacher at Brighton and also at Wolverhampton College of Art. He has created fantastic series of prints, among others of Brighton and Sussex. Elliott travelled extensively and made lovely prints of Italy, Malta, The Seychelles and many other places. In 1983 he emigrated to Australia where he still works now. Apart from printmaking he also creates paintings and watercolours. His prints are largely of buildings, boats or landscapes.
Prints from the 1960s and 1970s are often very colourful but Elliott takes this to another extreme. His choice of colour is very bold indeed and can sometimes look a bit out of place, yes even feel a bit unsettling. Yet the colours add something extra and unexpected to his work. It is as if any moment something mysterious is going to happen. The colours drag you into the artwork and almost force you to contemplate why those specific colours were selected.
This particular work, titled ‘Albert Docks, Liverpool’, is an excellent example of his work. It dates from 1970 and was printed in an edition of 50. What I particularly like is how the orange of the sky is repeated in the water as if they embrace the large dock building. With just a couple of motionless clouds in the sky and the perfect reflection of the little boats in the water the whole image has a very serene feeling despite the hot colours. The building itself looks rather distant and uninhabited, only the clocktower and the little boats in front suggest some human activity. At the same time it also has a great abstract sculptural quality to it and the great splash of colour make it work really well in a modern interior.
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