Geoff Stainthorp was born in North Shields in North East England in 1963, and lived on the coast in Whitley Bay. His early life growing up next to the sea changed at the age of 10, when his family moved west to Carlisle at the northern tip of the Lake District. This took Geoff into a new landscape moving from the wide-open seascapes to the dramatic scale of mountains and tranquillity of the enclosed lakes. Naturally drawn to explore this world he, his family and friends would spend their time exploring the crags and summits of this landscape and building dens with materials they found at hand. His sense of ‘sculpting’ had begun, and it wasn’t long before doodles and drawings were also being created. This interest was cultivated during his teenage years and further developed when he opted to take his Bachelor’s Degree in Sculpture at Gloucestershire College of Art.

After completing his degree, Geoff moved to London and acquired a studio he shared with Fiona Banner in a large cooperative factory unit in Stratford East, run by ACME, and where he worked alongside artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Simon English and many others of that new breed of artists in the 1980’s. Then, his work was large scale abstracted figures, built by twisting, cutting and welding steel creating angry and tortured post-industrial characters, alongside gestural and colourful drawings. His work was of a scale that suited the outdoors and he sought after various commissions, finding success through a project lead by the SUSTRANS organisation, who had developed the idea of placing artworks on the new and developing cycle network of England. 

Alongside this work Geoff had ventured into the world of film, supplementing his income by building props and sets for the various productions he was involved with. This developed a keener sense for his interest in drawing and painting to demonstrate ideas to producers. Which was also reflected in his art practice in the development away from sculpture into that of painting, exploring a range of artists and their techniques ranging from Anselm Kiefer to Anton Tàpies. But always with an eye on the finish of the piece along with the story of the visual, in essence still sculpting onto and into the surface. This can be seen in a drawing that was accepted into the Trinity Buoy Wharf drawing prize 2018, which was produced using a heavy watercolour paper being embossed using a wire frame that also transferred the oxidised pigment of the metal onto the image.

More recently Geoff has developed his practice, adapting his techniques and learning new ones through an expansion of his contact with other artists in a more direct way. Completing a year long part time mentoring course at Newlyn Art School in Cornwall during 2018. Also, he has re-connected with other artists on a more national level through social media and is in the process of developing joint projects.

Geoff shares his time between North Devon, between by the sea and the rugged landscape of Exmoor, as well as London living on a narrowboat where time is spent enjoying the contrast of life and the energy of an urban environment.