Biography

Geoff Hands was born in London although he spent much of his childhood in Shropshire where he attended Shrewsbury School of Art. He graduated from West Surrey College of Art & Design with a BA (Hons) degree in Painting in 1979. He then spent a year in Wales before settling in Brighton in 1981 and establishing a teaching career in FE and HE in Eastbourne, Horsham and Worthing. More recently he has contributed to the short course programme at West Dean College near Chichester.

Geoff Hands’ practice involves both en plein air and studio work in painting and drawing media, augmented by collage and printmaking.

A dedication to and celebration of painting and drawing is intrinsic to his abstraction. Though his practice has most often engaged with landscape and seascape, since 2015 his paintings have developed towards a more overtly abstract resolution.

However, in making these images he continues to link decisions to places and memories of them, both visual and in feeling. Intuitive decisions and chance developments in the painting process play their part too. The image will develop its own persona in the studio and memories of the landscape, the time of day, light conditions, the weather, sounds and atmospheres will contribute to the making of the paintings.

Since 2020 his painting imagery has also incorporated content from several ‘Old Masters’, including Rubens, Titian, Watteau and Gainsborough.

Over the past thirty years Geoff Hands has exhibited regularly and has work in collections in Europe and the USA.

An MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sussex has subsequently developed into making almost 100 contributions to a variety of online exhibition review websites (starting with Conceptual Fine Arts and latterly with AbCrit, Instantloveland, Saturation Point and his own Fineartruminations).

 Studio

Geoff Hands moved into a studio at Phoenix Art Space, Brighton in October 2019. A visit for individuals or groups can be arranged via the Contact form.