Geoff Houghton has always had a fascination for the visual arts and as a child he would frequently draw unusual characters to amuse his family. A self-taught artist, Geoff started painting watercolors in the 1990's, but lost interest in traditional subject matters. It wasn't until about 2006 that he discovered the enjoyment of fine illustrative style painting that enabled him to express his creativity in a colorful bold way that has been referred to as a sub-genre of Steampunk with elements of Pop Surrealism. You'll discover his art focuses primarily on colorful and whimsical illustrative characters that portray a different time, technology and fashion based in the mid to late Victorian era. Geoff's inspiration stems from the work of El Greco, Alphonse Mucha and Dr. Seuss, however it was Amedeo Modigliani's unique style of elongated figurative features that became the foundation for his recent work. His characters generally represent actual historical figures who are twisted into his colorful SteamFolk world also referred to as “Wistful World”. Geoff's art has been on display at Simsbury Library, Laughing Dog Bicycles, Suffield's William Pinney Gallery, East Windsor Public Library, Enfield Medical Associates, Tolland Arts Center, Hartford Open Studio and accepted into the Somers Piedmont Art Show for the past 5 years in a row. “Lizzie's return to Centre County” won first place in the 2010 Monson Arts Council and “The New Woman” won the Shephard Family Award in the 2011 Monson Arts Council Spring Show.