Garrick Palmer 2021 by Pat Attridge
Memories of and Messages to Garrick Palmer
Artist, Teacher, Father, Grandfather, Friend & Neighbour
GARRICK by Garrick’s daughters Sarah, Vicky & Emma
Growing up with artistic parents meant that we took the creative surroundings and all the eccentricities completely for granted.
An abundance of animals amongst organised chaos ..Only when we spent time with friends and other families did we realised the freedom and openness represented a very unusual home. We didn’t have restrictions and rules we were left to our own adventures while our parents fixated over their passions and creative desires that we observed but truly didn’t appreciate until we were adults. Calling Dad “Garrick “the name that represented an amazing artist, an intensely creative Individual that was introverted and at times very private. That creative Energy from our parents lives on in us all!
We feel the person you all know was different to the Dad he became after our mum sadly died at such a young age. Life without Ellis was empty, but this loss allowed us all to form a new relationship based on his love of schoolboy humour, constant silliness with a touch of sarcasm. Garrick’s extra dry wit was definitely unforgettable…One poignant moment Garrick said “Vicky your parental control is breath taking “while Isaac scootered through Emsworth causing chaos on a narrow pavement and proceeded to let off more steam in a quaint, sleepy tearooms…
Sarah, Vicky & Emma with their father
His form of communication while mum was visiting Emma in Malaysia after Jade was born, was a Sketch of a boil in the bag Vesper Curry. His cooking skills were captured as was the kitchen scene. His way of showing how he was missing mum, with this image of domestic bliss. The curry was apparently quite was disgusting. Once Garrick mastered the I phone, he realised that this was to be his latest visual tool to communicate the bizarre. His observation on a trip to Waitrose sent to Sarah of a very Mature Lady on the bus wearing ripped jeans and a leather Jacket followed by a sarcastic comment on suitability.
The obsessive love we share for our pets was also inherited from our parents, how to love and show affection through an indirect route that has continued throughout all of our lives… A home where your pet cat takes priority over the best seat in the house and some, we appreciate might find this difficult to grasp. Garrick’s beloved dog Charlie and Ginger Nuts being wonderful examples to the companionship that these animals gave. Ginger nuts sadly morns the love and warmth that Garrick radiated not only to him but I know to all of you in this room in unique and different ways.
Philip Larkin wrote a poem that resided with Garrick and he often quoted the lines … Odd choice seeing as he went on to have three daughters but we would love to share this with you all. In true Garrick style it may shock or make you feel slightly uncomfortable but for that Mr Palmer would answer with wit and charm to soften the blow
A fine example of his perverse humour ……
Philip Larkin….
THIS BE THE VERSE ….
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Love Garrick x
Garrick & Isaac
ISAAC Grandson
Conversations with Garrick were always imbued with purpose; he never indulged in superficial chatter. While short, his words carried great meaning, yet this depth wasn't immediately discernible. His discourse diverged from the precision of mathematical equations, where answers lie explicitly. As a man dedicated to the arts, akin to his paintings, his responses possessed layers and ambiguity; when explored often revealed answers extending beyond the initial question. Garrick’s life was far from simple or easy, so it’s only natural that his responses wouldn’t be straightforward or effortless. While it’s possible Garrick’s famous witty humour was at play in these moments of perceived wisdom, nonetheless, it’s these memorable characteristics that enable us to carry on his legacy every day.
SUE ATTRIDGE Neighbour, friend and Gardener
Garrick’s Garden
Gardening for Garrick
Sue Attridge & Garrick in his garden at 38
I've helped Garrick with his garden for about 15 years. Until last year, when he became more frail, he would join me at work, mowing the grass and occasionally wielding his secateurs. He loved the garden and keenly anticipated its annual displays – first of snowdrops and purple crocuses in the grass, then the huge and magnificent magnolia, followed by ethereal white blossom on two cherry plum trees, before the midsummer explosion of a white rambling rose, which had long since left its feeble metal arch to explore the trees and tall shrubs nearby.
Garrick liked a full, overgrown look to the garden and any small reduction to his favourite trees and shrubs (especially the magnolia and an acer by the front door) involved intense negotiation for the first few years, until he eventually accepted that I wasn’t ‘blade happy’ and was trying to enhance the beauty and shape of his cherished plants. He occasionally and reluctantly employed tree surgeons to do extensive work, which allowed in more light for the small flowering plants, whose colours he enjoyed from his kitchen window.
We always had a lengthy coffee break and wide-ranging conversations. I enjoyed his wry and often dark sense of humour. In recent years he was ‘adopted’ by a stray tomcat, originally Gingernuts and, later, after no previous owner could be found, just Ginger.
Garrick & Ellis Palmer
KATE DICKER
I have special memories of Garrick Palmer. My first meeting with him was in the mid-80s when my late mother, painter and printmaker Molly Dicker, organised an exhibition in Winchester which included his wife, Ellis, a jewellery maker. After the private view everyone came back to my parents' house in East Meon. I had just started wood engraving as a student at Camberwell and felt thrilled to strike up a conversation with him on the subject. He was a quietly spoken man, often having to overcome a stammer but, to have had that conversation with him then was real privilege. I had always known him as an exceptional wood engraver as my mother owned two landscape prints which hung in the best place in their house. Now I have inherited them and they hang in the best place in my house in Winchester.
Sadly, his wife Ellis died of cancer in the late 90s and left him feeling bereft. In 2003 he visited me often in Winchester to proof some of his blocks on my Albion Press. With him came his beloved companion, Charlie the dog. During lunch, with Charlie lying at his feet, Garrick and I, again, had many interesting conversations. His mind was exacting and I heard how critical he was of his own work and at times the art world.
During one lunch he expressed concern about how, over the years, he treated his engraved wood blocks. Once the block/s were completed and proofed, and he had achieved what he wanted, he saw little point in keeping them. To save on cost he sent some back for re-surfacing and some were casually stored so over the years those had become somewhat dried to the point that, when they were printed again, they creaked and sometimes cracked under the pressure of the press. He regretted not storing them well. My version sounds a bit extreme as he did resurrect a number of blocks, which he sent to John Grice of Evergreen Press in Gloucestershire to edition for his revival exhibitions. Garrick never owned his own press. He explained to me that burnishing by hand can often create the most sensitive results.
In 2013 I asked Garrick to come to Badger Press Printmaking Studio in Bishops Waltham (closed 2022) for a Saturday session called 'A Morning with Garrick Palmer'. We all saw his dedication to painting, drawing, designing, sketching in the landscape in Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire and heard about his personal insights and quandaries. He explained how he structured his engravings favouring the black-line approach and beyond this structure he created a plethora of textures and flowing tones. He chose only a limited number of tools to work with and how the subjects' shapes were significant to something happening in his life so, their meanings became embedded in the interpretation.
Now Garrick has died. He has left behind a rich legacy of a lifetime's work. Over recent years he has exhibited and been well archived at Portsmouth Museum, Pallant House, Emma Mason Gallery in Eastbourne and Jack House Gallery in Old Portsmouth. He was the ultimate painter-printmaker and his work is amongst our 'National Treasurers' - (a phrase he overheard at Pallant House). Garrick was an elected member of the Society of Painter-Printmakers and The Society of Wood Engravers. Kate Dicker 7th August 2023
Moby Dick Ashmolean Collection
ANNE DESMET Artist
I never met Garrick Palmer but had admired his work from afar for decades. There was an instantly recognisable and unique character to all his engravings which made them immediately identifiable as Garrick’s work and no one else’s. I was delighted to be able to include one of his spectacular wood engraved illustrations from a special edition of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” in the exhibition “Scene through Wood: A Century of Modern Wood Engraving” at the Ashmolean Museum (2020) and touring other UK museum venues (2022-23). I was invited to curate that exhibition by the Ashmolean and the Society of Wood Engravers to celebrate the centenary, in 2020, of the founding of the SWE. Garrick had been such a distinctive figure in the world of wood engraving for so many years that it was only right and fitting to include a fine piece of his work in that show for which, I hope, the catalogue will be a part of his lasting legacy. His work will be remembered, respected and enjoyed by artists and art enthusiasts for generations to come. May he rest in peace.
EMMA MASON Emma Mason Prints Eastbourne
I first met Garrick in 2006 when I visited him at his home, having contacted him about his wood engravings. I knew about Garrick’s superb work as a printmaker, but I had no idea at that time just how multitalented he was. He was unusual in that he was able to work so successfully in different mediums including printmaking, painting, and photography.
He was such a gifted artist and his work is without doubt very special. He will be remembered in particular for the skill, imagination and beauty of his wood engravings. Garrick put everything into his work and his engravings often reflect his own emotions, drawing on his personal experience, as in his engravings of Pancreatic Landscape or A Poignant Memory (for Ellis). He was also a superb observer of life and this is particularly evident in his later work as a photographer. His life time of work is really remarkable and it has been lovely to see his work appreciated by so many over the years. It is great too that many important examples of his work are now held in public collections.
I wanted, though, to write a few words about Garrick, the person who I worked with and who became such a good friend. On that first meeting, Garrick made pasta for lunch and with it he made lots of excuses about how it was nothing much and would probably not taste great. It was in fact a lovely lunch and we chatted for a long time. He was very open about his life and work, and because of that I felt I got to know him well in a short space of time. We laughed a lot too and I always enjoyed his dry sense of humour. From that point on, I showed his prints in our gallery and some years later we held an exhibition for his 80th birthday. He came to stay in Eastbourne and I remember that he spent all day chatting to people about his work, which visitors to the exhibition really loved.
We often spoke by phone or I would meet up with him, either at his home or at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. I had a habit of using the word really rather too often and Garrick, with his acute observation, noted this. It became a running joke and he would say to me that things were really, really, really good or really, really, this or that. So, I want to say thank you Garrick and, you will be really, really, really missed.
DEBORAH RICHARDS Exhibitions & Design Officer Portsmouth City Museum 1990-2015
I first became aware of Garrick through his paintings and wood engravings held in the collections at Portsmouth City Museum and came to know him better in 2008 when as Exhibitions and Design Officer there I worked on his 'Walk along the Seafront' photographic exhibition with my colleague Dr John Stedman.
Garrick was very rewarding to work with and we hit it off partly because I lived near him and was able to call in for 'curatorial' meetings on my way to and from work to discuss his exhibition and at that time non painting status. When we first met he described himself as a photographer and seemed to have little interest in painting but I tried to (and probably others did too) persuade him to think again... We included some of his paintings and engravings in the 2008 exhibition and indeed it was at that time he started to paint again.
He would proudly show me his work including his figure photography with a very cheeky glint in his eye. Also his ironic 'At Any Time' series of photographs. We would discuss anything from his childhood, his friends and family, love of ecclesiastical environments to working with other galleries, framing, purchase of a new printer and printmaking. He printed all the exhibition prints himself to exacting standards.
The Tricorn by Garrick Palmer
We shared in common a love of the South Downs landscape, printmaking, a convent education and diabetes... he came to my first printmaking exhibition in 2010 and was polite but I could tell that he wasn’t convinced by monotypes! I was around when Ginger Nuts his cat first arrived on his doorstep who went on to become a devoted companion eventually ‘sans nuts’ by my persuasion! Garrick was fiercely independent and determined to stay at his home in Horndean even when he gave up driving, insisting that he was perfectly safe navigating the steep stairs up to his studio. Any ideas of moving to Southsea or setting up his studio downstairs was firmly rejected!
His photographs of the Tricorn demolition were central to a major exhibition at Portsmouth City Museum held in 2014 and featured on the poster. He also exhibited some wood engravings of the South Downs at a fundraising exhibition that I organised at St Hubert's Church, Idsworth in 2017 where they still sell a Garrick postcard showing the church and a slightly unnerving plane overhead.
I am so sorry that Garrick has left us before he could enjoy his forthcoming 90th exhibition but it is wonderful that he had all the enjoyment and excitement of organising it with Rebecca. It was a delight and privilege to know him.
Portsmouth Museum 2018 curated by Susan Ward
SUSAN WARD Curator of Art Portsmouth Museum 2016-2022
Back in 2018 I worked alongside Garrick in curating an exhibition of prints, drawings and paintings from the permanent collection at Portsmouth Museum. Over the years I got to know him from visits to his home studio, exhibitions he did at The Jack House Gallery and from displaying his work in the permanent galleries at Portsmouth Museum. He also did a Q&A evening at the museum when he talked about his work and daily commitment to his painting.
I loved his early sepia drawings from the 60s which were fascinating. They demonstrated his impeccable draughtsmanship and observational study. Also, his large abstract landscapes characterised by his signature lapis blue and vermillion red, had real impact (he's probably reading this now wanting to correct me on my use of 'abstract'). I loved talking to Garrick about his work. To me he never alluded to other artists or their influence on him but rather had a stalwart single vision on what he wanted from himself as an artist. With an 'exacting' personality I was often amused by him venting slight irritation at an unfinished canvas not doing what he wanted it to do. All the while I was thinking, 'I wish I could paint like that'. In his younger years he was also the most incredible photographer. The one image of his that sticks in my mind was from the 70s and depicted two deckchairs near the funfair at Southsea. The fabric canvas of the chairs had blown inside out, (some might say typical of a Southsea summer) but it was bizarrely taken in winter with the chairs firmly nestled in snow. This kind of thing tickled him.
In the years I knew Garrick I found him to be both engaging and always keeping me on my toes. His art knowledge, experience and expertise was second to none. He would often show anxiety when I was curating his work, wanting detail on everything from mounting, framing, and always angling to have the gallery to himself: he was never fond of sharing the limelight, but what artist ever is?
I will remember Garrick with fondness: it was an honour and privilege to have known him.
EMILY WORSDALE Portsmouth Museum
Portsmouth Museums are honoured to hold so many beautiful works by Garrick in the city's art collection. The selection of work reflects the variety of different mediums and techniques he worked in throughout his career and demonstrate his magnificent talent and creativity as an artist. We are so grateful for his generosity to us over the years, through donating work and his time giving talks to the public. Garrick will be sorely missed but fondly remembered and we will continue to show his work with pride.
JOHN STEDMAN formerly Portsmouth Museum
I curated his exhibition ’A walk along the seafront’ in 2007 or 2008. Obtained a grant to pay for materials, helped him choose which of his photos to display, helped with captions (adding some local history info), sorted a few additional elements, such as a consultation about the future of the seafront (then under discussion) and did the admin. He allowed us to add the photos to the museum collection.
JOHN GILLETT Winchester School of Art colleague & friend
Hello old friend.
I am sorry I have to miss this, your Special Day. I feel sure you would have enjoyed the joke of calling it that. I would very much have liked to have met all your people, the characters in your news and your stories, your Portsmouth friends and your Chichester friends and your family, and maybe some of those nice nurses you mentioned. Most of them wouldn’t know who I am, of course, amongst the last working, perhaps, of your Winchester School of Art friends. I was coming in there as you were going out, back in the ’eighties, me the young new gallery organiser, you the Head of the Foundation course, soon to retire. But over the decades I’ve caught you up, another old man with very long years of service in that place. And so – probably – it falls to me, hanging on in there, to thank you most sincerely for those years of service, for the care you gave to all those students, and for leading the way, with your remarkable range, across those mysterious divides between media and different branches of our discipline. You understood so fully the balance between determined self-expression, rigorous technical finesse, and visual alertness to visual opportunity. Your wood-engravings richly deserve their place in the printmaking canon, their painstaking evocation of precise moments in an unreachable time. And your paintings, brightly coloured, but shadowy; geometric, but not; kind of curved and kind of straight, kind of fluent yet kind of awkward, just the way things are; total abstractions yet insistently suggestive of place; a place, far away, always there, a mighty edifice on the plain. And the photography. High-contrast images of the moment seized, and the slower work of getting to know a place and then keeping up the friendship.
All this and a Fiesta XR2. Even after the fast Ford, even without a car, always the boy-racer.
I don’t know why I am surprised you have gone; you had been telling me it was coming for years and years. For you, I always felt, it was the best of the big jokes, told deadpan, with humour so dry it crackled, so dry that without the seldom-glimpsed wicked smile, we probably missed it. It was the big joke in the show we made of all those photographs of the little no-parking signs that say ‘At Any Time’: there’s trouble around the corner – the Grim Reaper or a parking attendant - so, on the quiet, seize every occasion for joy.
I will plan to print some of this in next year’s School of Art yearbook, along with my very favourite photograph, if I may, with your kind permission. It will be the one you took in Venice, of the masked, cloaked figure passing an ancient wall, an inscrutable personage, their passage measured by mysterious marks and signs, heading into the shadows. John Gillett August 2023.
Anti Smoking Poster Winchester Art College wood engraving Garrick Palmer 1962
JENNI NOTTON former student & friend
Garrick Palmer was a tutor at Winchester School of Art in the 60`s, when I was there taking a Fine Art degree. He took Life drawing Classes and was a great teacher. Somehow I and another student got awarded a prize ! He had a lovely sense of humour.! I really do have such warm and happy memories of those days.
More recently I met up with him through Bonita Tully. We went to his house and I met Gingernuts !! So pleased to hear that he has been found a good home. A couple of more meet ups were arranged .It was so good to see him so sharp in wit and full of humour . I will be with you all in Spirit on Friday (the memorial gathering). Garrick will be always remembered. A wonderful Artist and man.
BONITA BOELLA former student & friend
I first met Garrick when I joined Winchester School of Art in 1963. We were all in awe of his skills then and I am still. We renewed acquaintance many years later when he gave a talk at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. We got on well and met every few weeks for lunch trying several pubs, but preferring our favourite restaurant in Funtington. He always made me laugh with his quirky sense of humour.
Gingernuts, his beautiful ginger tabby, who wandered in one day and chose to stay, was there to greet him on arrival home. He was good company for him and they clearly adored one another. I'm pleased to admire several wood engravings and a large painting on my walls, (and those of at least three friends), a reminder of a truly lovely man with prodigious talent.
Acrylic on Canvas 120x100 Garrick Palmer 2021
STEVE NICHOLLS customer Jack House Gallery
We first discovered Garrick’s work in 2017; a fairly recent discovery. The first pieces we bought were two wood engravings and we were hooked from then on. The cuts are so delicate, yet the images are so powerful. Then we discovered his paintings and were delighted to be able to attend the last two of his exhibitions at the Jack House Gallery; buying two paintings. A different medium, but again, one that he mastered with unique style and execution. A very sad loss of such a talented artist.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner Garrick Palmer
DIANA WREN Customer Jack House Gallery
I visited both Garrick Palmer exhibitions at the Jack House Gallery. I have practised printmaking myself and especially loved the wood engraving illustration of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one of my favourite poems. I was lucky enough to be able to buy an artist's proof of the scene where the Mariner straps himself to the mainmast. I then wanted to see the whole series so searched the internet and was able to buy the Folio Society's edition of the work with all the Garrick Palmer wood engravings. What a wonderful work!
The much sought after LAND by Garrick Palmer
ISOBEL BRUNDSEN Stained Glass artist
I am a stained glass artist, designing and making traditional and contemporary work. Landscape is a continual subject for a lot of my work and I am constantly studying artists of this genre. I saw my first GP at Emma Mason Gallery in Eastbourne some 15 years ago, i was totally captivated by his distinctive style and his response to the landscape. His way of looking through a hedgerow to the landscape beyond was masterful. So I bought ‘Memory of a strange Landscape’ and then I just kept collecting! And now my collection boasts fifteen wood engravings, five lithographs and two original works. In 2021 I started my search for the elusive book ‘Land’ I couldn’t track down a copy anywhere, so I sent an email to Garrick and I was delighted to receive a personal reply, which was very touching. He agreed to try and find me a copy via a friend, however this was not successful but in the mean time I finally found a copy at a bookshop online, which I bought and what a wonderful thing it is! Literally a couple of weeks later a copy came up on eBay at a fraction of the price……I couldn’t help myself, I bought that too! So I now have two pristine copies.
I get so much joy from my collection.. I look at them everyday and visitors are certainly captivated. Unfortunately I was never lucky enough to meet Garrick but I do know he has left a mark on me and a wonderful legacy for all.
Memory of a Strange Landscape wood engraving Garrick Palmer
CHRIS HARMAN customer Jack House Gallery
Sending a picture of our lovely Garrick Palmer picture. We purchased this picture at your gallery, we think around 2018. I love most rural pictures, having spent a lot of child hood holidays in the country. When we saw the picture we thought it was Dorset, which later on in the evening the artist confirmed. We have very happy memories of holidays in Dorset & obviously looking at the picture daily, in our home is a lovely reminder. Rest in Peace Garrick Palmer. Please pass on our condolences to the family.
John & Audrey Dryden-Brownlee collectors
John was at the Southern College of Art with Garrick in the 1950s. Garrick studied Fine Art and John Architecture. We lived next to Garrick, Ellis and the three girls for about five years. We stayed friends and regularly met up until his death. We have a considerable collection of his work ranging from large paintings, both landscapes and abstracts, engravings, book illustrations for Moby Dick, and photographs of New York, etc. In total about 20 works. We also have a lot of individual Christmas cards, and Photographs, etc.
DEBBIE SUTCLIFFE Society of Wood Engravers
What I remember most about Garrick was his openness and generosity of spirit. When I expressed an interest in buying some of his work he immediately invited me to visit him at April Cottage. This became the first of many visits with trips to galleries, lunch, and discussions about art and artists, quickly progressing to any discussion that two friends might have about life.
Our initial connection was over wood engraving and Garrick showed as much interest in my work as a willingness to discuss his own. Although his engraving days were by then limited due to failing eyesight, there was always a block set up on a table in the middle of the room waiting to be continued whenever he felt the urge, however seldom that might be. His engraving tools showed the signs of having been used for a long time with the DNA of previous artists as well as his own hand upon them. I remember the initials of Norman Janes being cut into some of the handles.
The encouragement that Garrick gave me when I was starting out culminated in his buying my linocut, ’Sisters’. I remember him saying when we first met that he could never work as I do and wondering at the time if that was a compliment or not. I believe the print made him think of his three daughters. I also remember offering him the print framed in oak and he immediately replied that he ‘wouldn’t frame it like that!’ I was slightly taken aback at the force of his response, which took me by surprise, but liked him all the more for it.
I remember with great fondness the time we spent together. Walking around an exhibition at the Towner with Garrick offering anecdotes about artists he had known and who were long dead was particularly thrilling, offering a living connection to those I considered past masters. His friendship was a tremendous gift.
ANN TOUT Society of Wood Engravers
The first SWE picnic that I can recall was kindly held at Sarah van Niekerk’s home by the River Severn and I could hear discussions about the Severn Bore. Being a very new subscriber I hardly knew anyone, when one engraver asked how far I had travelled that day, to which I replied from Fareham. He asked what road and to our surprise I lived only one door away from his childhood home. He was Garrick Palmer. I think he said his father had built the property. We kept in touch and every Christmas would exchange letters and cards and he was always very encouraging of my wood engravings.
PROFESSOR MARIUS KWINT Portsmouth University
I never met him, but we daily enjoy his 'Sun and Hill' picture we bought from you, which hangs in our hallway. I also append a couple of photos of my 1st year class (I think it was) enjoying his work a couple of years ago.
Pancreatic Landscape wood engraving
Garrick Palmer & Kit Boyd 60 Years in Art
KIT BOYD Artist
I first became aware of the landscapes of Garrick Palmer in the 1990s. His colourful and complex depictions of fields and hills glimpsed through hedges and intertwined trees, with the sun filtering through leaves, resonated with my own experience of walking the paths and lanes of the English countryside. I'd always liked Alan Reynolds' paintings of landscapes with plantlife dominant in the foreground, and Garrick seemed to be following in these footsteps at a time when most painters were turning to abstraction and pop art. I collected many of these lithographs through eBay from America where they were published, and occasionally found one in an antique shop or market here in London.
I then found his wonderful book of fine wood engravings in Land, published by Nicolas and Frances at the Old Stile Press, who coincidentally became collectors of my own work exactly because of my interest in neoromanticism and followers like Garrick and George Tute.
Garrick was inspirational in another way to me, as he was also type 1 diabetic and was one of the first to have retinopathy successfully treated to stop him going blind, so we'd both been through the same thing. I treasure his wood engraving Pancreatic Landscape, incorporating his detailed study of a pancreas. He often incorporated hidden images in his landscapes like this, and I've always enjoyed this kind of double imagery and surrealism in his work. I'm sure an oil painting of a landscape I own contains a cat hidden in the dense foliage of the foreground, but he simply smiled and said "Possibly" when I asked him about it. Landscape should always have an element of mystery, and he was a master of creating something unusual from the landscapes we all see every day.
Garrick & Deane Clarke during lockdown……………..
DEANE CLARKE Old Friend & Colleague
Garrick Palmer, an old friend in my college of art days in the 1950s, had become a master engraver, artist and photographer when I met him again in 1973. By then he was nurturing the creative skills of students at the college of art in Winchester. After I moved to Hampshire County Council‘s Historic Buildings Bureau in 1975 we were able to use his brilliant photography in our records of buildings of note in the county. This was just one aspect of his work. Garrick was also a friend of the family and we persuaded him to take on his first ever commission as a wedding photographer for my son’s wedding in 2001. We loved his witty Christmas cards, original every year, and were delighted to see some of Ellis’s wonderful brooches on display at Portsmouth Museum’s Silver City exhibition last year.
We had a “business meeting” with Garrick during lockdown when my wife Celia selected photos for one of her books from samples laid out in his garden. The presence of Gingernuts looking on may have taken us over the official limit for such gatherings. The sparkle in his eyes will always be with us and we remember him “At any time”.
ABIGAIL DAY customer Jackhouse Gallery
I was so sad to learn of Garrick's death. You clearly had a special relationship with him and I've enjoyed seeing his work with you over the years. I bought a little wood engraving - 'Lazarus Raised' (Lilac) c.1968 last May from you. I think it was in the 'Reflections' exhibition in April 2022... Images attached. I recall you telling me that it was a one off experiment incorporating colour and that he was never content with, nor settled on a colour version. Which makes me love it even more, especially as I think the colour versions are so successful. It holds pride of place in my hallway in Windsor and it continues to bring me joy daily and a little reminder of home (Portsmouth).
Garrick in his beloved Venice 1961?
CLAIRE DAW Family friend
Hello Rebecca, I am the daughter of Maurice Daw who was a very old friend of Garrick Palmer from the 1950s onwards. I was contacted by a mutual friend last night (Rod Billington) who told me of his sad passing and the upcoming exhibition. I should like to contribute to the memorial book if the information I have would be of interest. We have lost touch over the years but as children spent time together as families and Mum and Dad and enjoyed Garrick and Ellis’ company. I can remember playing French skipping with their girls in their garden as our parents relaxed inside! Dad and Garrick visited Venice together in 1961 - though how they wangled that I do not know as both Mum and Ellis would have had two small children apiece by then! My brother (named Garrick after Dad’s good friend we believe) was born the following year. Dad sadly passed away in 2004 and Mum in 2013 so our links with the Palmer family were lost. I have a book of photographs from ‘the lads’ Venice trip which may be of interest to you - Garrick gave it to my sister Alison when she visited him in 2005. The book is precious to us and not robust enough to be thumbed through at an exhibition but it could perhaps withstand a day out at a memorial.
HUGH SHEPPARD Old Friend
Dear Garrick,
Etched forever in our minds.
Hugh Sheppard for his best of friends; Peter (RIP) and Margaret Jackson, of Winchester, Orkney and Salt Spring Island (Canada). Thanks again for the happy memories,
Standing Forms wood engraving
ANDREW RILEY customer Jack House Gallery
I first saw and fell in love with this wood engraving by Garrick in the Print Room at the Pallant House Gallery quite a while back, and subsequently saw it again and purchased one from Rebecca on my first ever visit to the Jack House Gallery which must have been in 2018, the piece on the wall already had a red doggy on it, but she was able to obtain another for me. It was the first original work on paper that I’d purchased (my main collecting being Studio Pottery) and it hangs in pride of place on a wall of my lounge. Buying my first work on paper in 2018 set me off adding pieces to my collection by various artists (nearly all from the JHG), and it wasn’t long before a second Garrick entered my collection – a piece that is quite different from Hampshire Fields but equally as captivating – it occupies another space on the same wall, both pieces visible from where I sit in the lounge. It is with regret that I never got to meet Garrick and talk with him about his works, I was hoping to do that at the upcoming show at the JHG but sadly that is not to be. I expect I will be adding further works to my collection, and I’ll know which ones on sight, as I did with the above two works. In memory of a great artist who is already missed.
Garrick Palmer by Katy Hounsell
Garrick Palmer is not an artist who paints pretty pictures. Much of his work depicts the sadness of life and falls roughly into three categories – painting geometric shapes, harmoniously coloured to express abstract themes, wood engraving and prints and black and white photography. To celebrate his artistic career as he approaches ninety all three are represented in his current exhibition ‘Reflections’ now at the tiny friendly Jack house Gallery in Portsmouth High St. There is also a permanent display of previous work at the Portsmouth City Museum a few steps away.
Palmer was born and bred in Portsmouth and has lived and worked here all his life. He firstly studied art at Portsmouth College of Art and Design followed by a post graduate painting study course at the Royal Academy where he was awarded several scholarships and the RA Gold medal. At this time - the mid-fifties - he says ‘Senior members of the RA were inclined to offer the image of modern art, and Picasso’s work in particular,as offering fodder for amusement.’ Some of Palmer’s contemporaries developed spectacular methods to draw attention to themselves rather than their work but his superb craftsmanship, his attention to detail and exploiting every creative possibility has earned him a unique and lasting place in the Art world and a devoted following.
It is not surprising that not long after graduating and taking up a teaching post at Winchester School of Art, the Folio society commissioned him to make woodcut prints to illustrate a number of books including Moby Dick by Herman Melville and The Destruction of the Jews by Josephus and his creative energy pushes the craft almost beyond its limits to whet the imagination and evoke an emotional scene.
In Moby Dick just the head and shoulders in profile are portrayed of Captain Ahab the captain of the ship Pequod. His eyes are narrowed, his chin thrust forward and his expression clearly obsessed with catching Moby Dick the white whale who had savaged his leg.
In The Destruction of the Jews the lines representing clothing are cut narrowly and horizontally round each massacred body, spread out on the steps below the city and suggest a callous extermination of a wasps nest.
Destruction of the Jews
In the series of prints Lazarus the stark black and white lines are softened and enriched with pastel colours between the lines. Gazing out from the tomb into the dazzling sunlight one can make out the shape of a figure exuding love and forgiveness and suggests that Lazarus is perhaps being freed from not just mortal but spiritual death.
In Word War 2 at the age of seven Palmer was sent to a convent school in Staffordshire and became fond of the nuns who formed a safe family like haven. One small print just called Nun at Sheerwater is of an elderly nun her arthritic hands in prayer over her cross. In contrast in illustrating Gerard Manley Hopkins poem ‘The Wreck of the Deutchland’, he shows a close up of the five Franciscan nuns escaping by ship from the anti-Catholic Laws in Prussia, instigated by Bismark. As the ship sinks one feels so desperate for the poor things, caught under deck, screaming and praying, waiting for the water to gush in and drown them.
His keen eye and interest in architecture also made him a fine photographer in particular of buildings and earned him numerous commissions including churches. His ‘A place of Worship ‘ in 2006. He was also commissioned to produce a series called On the Sea Front at Portsmouth. He chose to shoot in the worst weather possible a family struggling against a fierce summer gale when the canvas of deckchairs was being being ripped from the frames. His very successful photographic career ended around 2010 when modern technology took over and his equipment became obsolete.
He now paints on the top floor of his house where the natural light is strongest. He uses a brush to apply acrylic on large canvasses which is slow and laborious but gives him time to think. His favoured subjects once again are abstract themes expressed in geometric shapes in beautiful colours and also trees.
JANE FARLEIGH ‘Lady Jane’ Neighbour & Friend
Hey 38,
I used to see you shuffling to the bus stop and back
Off to Waitrose for your Bighams and posh food for the cat
Then came that fateful day when your legs gave way ,
You were helpless like a beetle on its back
Laid out on the pavement, telling me your name
Not the ideal first impression for your neighbour ‘Lady Jane’
But your spark shone through and as of then
It was a privilege and honour to become your friend
Like a ‘sack of potatoes’ I dragged you back, to Number 38
2 months later Covid arrived which proceeded to seal our fate
“Any shopping requirements, I’m your girl. Morrisons, Asda, Tesco’s?”
“Very kind of you to offer but I don’t think I heard you mention Waitrose”
A different class, but on the same street
It’s strange how I knew we were destined to meet
Doorstep natters flourished during this peculiar time
Humorous conversations that nearly always crossed the line.
Your wit, your directness, your fine choice of words
Laughing at stories I couldn’t believe I’d just heard
Thursday night claps that you always came out for
Flashing (your torch) at me a few steps from your door
The tickets for the school raffles that you always bought
And when you won the big hamper you were almost distraught
A fine choice of language you did display
“Who the F**k is going to take this lot away!?”
Although the best one by far was not the 1st prize
It was when you won the hamper full of pink children’s supplies!
Don’t worry about Ginger he’s doing just fine
(Even if his food isn’t quite as refined)
He’s being smothered with love and all that he needs
From my two boys who are still climbing your trees
Number 12 is so grateful for the time that we had
I smile when I think of you, and will always be glad
Of that day of destiny when the opportunity came
I miss you Mr G, the street’s not the same
Poking my head round your door and calling your name
And hearing you call back…”Is that Lady Jane?”
Ginger in his new home!
DOM LAWSON Family Friend
Garrick and my Father Greg Lawson were life long best friends and first met at Kindergarten before the war, both were schooled by the Brothers at St Johns College in Southsea straight after the war. Of this time I know very little but it seems a phrase comes to mind “Streeky Boshious whoosh whoosh whoosh”. I didn’t know what this meant but was told at the celebration of Garrick’s life by an old chap, that it was the terrifying sound of the Doodlebugs, the V1 rocket. Together they failed their physical and psychological assessment for National service but then together gained placesat Portsmouth Art school. Here they would meet their future Wives, Ellis and my Mum Barbara. Later these two Portsmouth boys would be Best man at each others weddings. Sometime around then, I presume before marriage , with the new found freedom afforded the youth, the two friends took a trip to Paris in search of Jazz, culture and adventure. It was now time to grow up, carve out careers and start families, my parents and the Palmers would remain close and their family were regular visitors to our home. These four bright young things were very creative as you may know of Garrick with his art and Ellis’s beautiful and inspiring jewellery.
The Lawsons & the Palmers way back when!