Geoff Goddard

Geoff Goddard is a British portrait artist based in Cambridgeshire. After retiring from visual arts teaching, he has focused even more on his paintings where realism is fundamental.

The Pre-Raphaelites era and many contemporary figurative artists have influenced Goddard’s work. His art employs a range of approaches where a human element is always present in his work whether it is an ordinary portrait or layered image. Realism is key to Goddard’s work where nurtures the small details and subtle changes in colour and tone.

Observation is the natural first step in Goddard’s creative process. Visual starting points could include observations of changing seasons or the fading of a flower, from which he develops pictorial tales.  Goddard has two approaches to painting: he will either start with colour onto a bare panel or build up from a monochrome grisaille adding layers of coloured glaze.

Geoff has accumulated much experience throughout his career in the form of numerous exhibitions, some of which include Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Open Prize exhibition and the Artists and Illustrators Artists of the Year Award.

I like to explore a range of styles and techniques but there is always a human element in my work, whether through digital, drawing or painting. Ranging from the conventional portrait or layered image to a more narrative approach the main purpose is to create art that has beauty, requires investigation and generates an emotive response. Realism is fundamental to all my work and I revel in details and subtle changes in colour and tone.

Observation of natural processes initiates investigations through drawing or painting. These visual starting points can be anything from the simple fading of a flower with time to the complexity of a weather pattern that can move and shape. This forms a framework to build and develop pictoral tales.

In the past I have created work in both drawing and painting which interlace the natural world with portraiture.

More recently I have been exploring how to relate the human form within the landscape. This could be in an imagined or real setting. For example, in my latest series I have endeavoured to show the low autumn light and how this creates rich colours and shadows which in turn play on the face.