Geoff Dyer (1947-2020) had a unique capacity to evoke light through paint, capturing a sense of atmosphere and charging each work with an unmistakable strength and intensity. Dyer’s love of the landscape was fostered through the use of watercolour and gouache, utilising the freedom of working on paper to paint plein air. Although more nationally renowned for his large robust oils, Dyer regularly returned to watercolour and gouache, enjoying its freedom and immediacy. Similar to his oils, Dyer regularly revisited specific locations with his works on paper, including rough seas of Ocean Beach, the Freycinet skyline from Dolphin Sands and the Furneaux Group, a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania.
Dated 2006, this painting despite one of Dyers favourite areas to paint, Cockle Creek. Dyer has captured a deep sense of atmosphere through paint, depicting filtered light reflecting off tannin stained water capturing the mystery of the temperate rainforest of Tasmania’s South West. The work is signed lower right and was originally exhibited during the solo exhibition A Point Of View with Despard Gallery in 2006, then held in a private collection Hobart.
Geoff Dyer (1947-2020) had a highly celebrated professional career spanning over fifty years, with countless solo exhibition nationally, as well as exhibitions in Singapore, Guangdong and New York. His work is held in numerous important collections including the National Portrait Gallery, Artbank, the University of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). Dyer was hung in the New South Wales Art Gallery over twenty times as a finalist in the Archibald prize (1993, 1996, 1999 -2004, 2006 and 2011), Wynne Prize (1977, 1988–1993, 1998, 2004) and Sulman Prize (1997, 2006). Dyer became an Archibald finalist for the first time in 1993 with a portrait of environmentalist and Federal Green’s leader, Bob Brown. His last portrait, included a portrait of David Walsh, founder of MONA. Most notably, Dyer won the Archibald Prize in 2003 with a portrait of writer, conservationist and friend, Richard Flanagan.
GEOFF DYER (1947-2020)
Cockle Creek III 2006
Oil on linen
91 x 91 cm
Signed lower right
$13,950.00
PROVENANCE:
Exhibited Despard Gallery, Solo Exhibition A Point Of View December 2006
Private Collection Hobart
