George Turland Goosey

The son of Nathaniel S. Turland of Northampton, England, George Turland Goosey made a name for himself initially as an architect in America using the surname Turland Goosey.   He designed some of the early skyscrapers, “the famous Friars Club, the theatrical centre of America’s capital”, and no less than seven Roman Catholic churches.  He was also an accomplished etcher – his print Moonlight on a Venetian Canal winning first prize in the annual exhibition in New York in 1914.

In 1921, however, he decided to try his hand at painting and returned to England, where he settled in the art colony at St Ives, Cornwall.  In addition to continuing his etching, he developed an impressionistic style in oils, and his paintings of boats in St Ives harbour have won many admirers.  Confusingly for collectors, however, by the late 1920s, he had reverted to using his original surname of Turland.  He rarely practised as an architect whilst in St Ives – his highly regarded design for the cross on the War Memorial being an exception –  but his change of status did not bother him at all:-

“He lives in a little studio perched on the rocks, where he paints and draws in black and white, so close to the sea that in the winter-time the foam dashes against the walls of his home…There he is, whiling the hours away, just doing the things that he likes best – and happy.  He and Rolf Bennett, the author, sit at the window, listening to the cries of the gulls and the music of the waves, smoking Dustman’s Delight, a mixture of their own concoction.” (Vera Hemmens “A Cornish Chelsea”  – St Ives Times, August 1923)

Goosey played an active role in the theatricals at the St Ives Arts Club and joined the St Ives Society of Artists in the late 1920s.  As the Second World War loomed, he returned to America, settling in Laguna Beach, California and becoming a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association.

Submitted November 2005 by David Tovey.
Abridged extract from David Tovey, Creating A Splash – The St Ives Society of Artists (1927-1952), Wilson Books, Tewkesbury, England 2003 – ISBN0953836347