Stroud’s Autumn Arts Trail will feature the work of Geoff Sumpter, an artist of wit and vision, who never sought the limelight. It’s thanks to his widow, Rosemary, that some of his extraordinary creations are at last going on show.
Five shepherdesses, hands jauntily on hips, are standing in a line, quizzical expressions challenging the viewer: Why are you looking at us! Yet the answer is obvious: from their exquisite dresses (vibrant blue, yellow, green, deep rose; puff sleeves, lacy trim) to their charming bonnets, they are simply mesmerising.
Standing some 3ft wide and 18ins tall, this beautifully painted, carved-wood ornament is by the late Nailsworth artist Geoff Sumpter.
“They’ve each got the name of one of his five granddaughters,” Rosemary, his widow, explains.
It would be tempting to say the humour, verve and sheer personality of the piece are characteristic of Geoff’s work.
Yet – in a sense – that belies the sheer scope of his art.
For Geoff, it seems, could turn his hand to anything – and with a singular wit and skillset all of his own. A ‘visualiser’ graphic designer by day, he produced commercial artwork: theatre ads, brochures, logos and letterheads.
But, once home, his vivid imagination was allowed free rein; and the pieces he worked on – as presents; never sold – were as varied as the man himself. A former marine, he was an expert on World War II, a Volkswagen Beetle enthusiast, even a black belt in judo.
“Now I think to myself: where on Earth did he find the time?” Rosemary laughs.
Even as a child, Geoff was a maker: somebody who could never come across a scrap of wood without seeing what it could become in his hands. When he and Rosemary met at art college – in Geoff’s home town of Great Yarmouth – that impulse was as strong as ever.
“When we were first married, there were three of us in the marriage! We lived alongside a massive boat he was making from scratch, using wood and pins: an immaculate model of [the battleship] HMS Warspite.”
As their family grew, they learned never to disturb Geoff in his studio in the few months before Christmas. “He’d be like Santa Claus, making these little models and brooches.”
One of Rosemary’s prized possessions is a ‘winged’ wooden-heart brooch he made for her with an offcut from a Welsh dresser he built for their first house in Cheltenham.
Gifts always had a personal touch: a ‘Puffing Billy’ for his grandfather, Billy, who used to be an engine driver, the passengers members of his family. Tea caddies, paper models (including one in kit-form sold by the Mary Rose museum shop), ornaments celebrating people’s hobbies and interests.
“Our son – a model-maker himself – was working on the London Olympics opening ceremony, cutting up drumsticks. He was left with about 200 little heads that he didn’t know what to do with. Geoff took them, carved every one into a soldier, and made a cake stand called The Last Cake Stand, like Custer’s last stand. He was endlessly busy.”
Though Geoff occasionally spoke of an exhibition, he always shied away from planning it.
For Rosemary, being part of the arts trail is a chance for his work to be properly admired by a larger audience, just as he deserved.
“I thought: I’ll open up our house. I’m in the sitting room now and there are at least a dozen pictures around me: the view from where we used to live at Barton End, across to Horsley; the grandchildren on donkeys on the beach; me in a gallery in Vienna, looking at Klimt pictures; Morris dancers outside the Sub Rooms.”
Plus brooches, models, boats: colourful, detailed, clever, fun.
There’s poignancy for Rosemary: but happiness, too. “There are lots of memories and good things here. I want to do it for Geoff. I’d like these things to be seen.”
- Geoff’s work will be on show at Vineyard View, 6 Norton Ridge, Nailsworth GL6 0TN as part of the autumn arts trail, October 12/13 and 19/20: autumnarts.org
