Geoffrey and Jill Garnier: A Marriage of the Arts

Geoffrey Garnier was the only Newlyn artist to devote himself entirely to the art of print-making. After a spell in Canada he studied at the Bushey School of Art and in 1913 at the Forbes School of Art at Newlyn in Cornwall. Friends there included Lamorna Birch, Laura and Harold Knight, Charles and Ruth Simpson, Harold Harvey, his wife Gertrude and her sister Sophie Bodinnar, Frank Dobson the sculptor, Dod and Ernest Procter and A J Munnings and wife Florence. Geoffrey and Jill, coinciding at the Forbes School, married in 1917 while he was serving in the Navy, and after the war settled in Newlyn, where they remained for the rest of their lives. They bought Orchard Cottage, high above the harbour with glorious views across the bay to St Michael's Mount, building studios in the sloping garden. Geoffrey's prints gained international recognition. He worked in dry-point, line engraving, etching, mezzotint and particularly aquatint, developing new processes and rediscovering old methods. Favourite subjects were the sailing ships of the great era of British sea power, Cornish landscapes and sporting scenes, charming studies of children at play and colourful oriental prints. Jill continued to paint despite the demands of domesticity, and produced portraits of her children and friends, landscapes and still lifes, making a record of her times. Geoffrey's versatility extended to calligraphy, bookbinding and fiction writing. Despite his nostalgia for old Cornish life, he had a love of fast cars, owning such exotic makes as Benz, Delage and Austro-Daimler. See more