Subjects that Inspire

“My work has been like one long chain of progression. I latch on to one theme and that decides what the next series will be and then I shoot off on another tangent. Since leaving college, that has not stopped.” 

No particular individual element inspires Geoffrey Key’s choice of subject matter.  With this is mind, he instead likes finding and exploring new and different aspects of whatever he is painting.  However, there have been certain subjects he returns to regularly, and he is perhaps best known for his popular clowns and horses, both powerful images.

His interest in clowns stems, ironically, from a childhood fear of them.  It should perhaps be said that he has now explored them so often and so effectively in his work that this fear must surely have been well and truly exorcised.

Geoffrey Key’s interest in the colour, lines and movement of performance is also shown in his paintings of dancers, jesters and musicians.  It has led to a series of works featuring the Commedia dell’arte, of which he says, “I realised Commedia dell’arte epitomised everything I had done in the past.”

This is covered in the book Infinite Jest.