Geoffrey Wheeler (1929-1995) was born
in Penn, Buckinghamshire and joined the
Great Western Railway in 1945. Later he saw service in the Royal Navy,
serving in a
number of ships including HMS Amethyst, about which he edited and illustrated
his
first book.
studio, as an illustrator, he went freelance in 1961. He
perfected superb airbrush techniques, which are displayed
in his range of work available from Wheeler Prints.
Some of the locomotive illustrations took up to six months
to complete, as airbrushing requires a method of masking
hand cut from masking film which takes longer than the
spraying itself. The level of detail was also so exact as to
be perfect colour engineering drawings, with every nut and
bolt in the right place. For a number of years he drew the
cut away features for the "Eagle" boys' paper, which
was and still is much renowned, and has now become
extremely collectable.
The Wheeler family are proud to present this unique range
of coloured portraits of
Traction Engines and Railway Locomotives, complemented by the black and
white
cut-away drawings, which were pioneered and made famous by Geoffrey in
the
"Eagle", throughout the 1960’s.