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About New Collection
MERVYN GOODE
As one of the country's leading landscape painters, Mervyn Goode's work should need little introduction.
Born in 1948, he studied Landscape Architecture at The Gloucestershire College of Art, but bravely eschewed this career in 1970, at the age of 21 to pursue his true vocation as a painter. His first One-man Exhibition, at the Highton Gallery in London in 1970, which featured entirely oil paintings depicting the Hampshire landscape, was a 'sell out', and stimulated considerable interest in and achieved rare acclaim for one so young, from Collectors and Critics, both here and abroad. In reviewing that Exhibition, the Sunday Telegraph Art Critic described him as a painter "who is in love with trees, nature, reality, creation and peace itself."
Mervyn Goode's career has flourished since that time. Numerous One-man Exhibitions held in London and the provinces; a One-man Exhibition in the U.S.A; countless invited featurings in Mixed Exhibitions in Public and Private Galleries throughout the country; television featurings; and an ever-increasing demand from Collectors in the UK and abroad, all bear witness to Mervyn Goode's continuing success, and to the esteem in which his work is held.
Mervyn Goode has bravely devoted himself, throughout his career, exclusively to his landscape painting resolutely refusing to be caught or cushioned by the 'trappings' of those temptations which, as an artist, spell anathema for him; teaching and accepting commissioned paintings one of the few living artists so to do preferring to paint "what he wants to paint, when he wants to paint it, and how he wants to paint it".
For more than twenty six years now, Mervyn Goode has lived with his wife Stephanie, and their successive Labrador dogs, in a rambling country house hidden just outside Hawkley, in Hampshire. Deep in an environment of ancient, sunken tree-canopied lanes, and within the sound of the River Rother, theartist's home and studio commands open and idyllic views across the wooded hanger of Noar Hill and along a secluded valley and rolling farmland towards the far-reaching landscape beyond all of which feature so often in his works.
A keen naturalist, and ardent conservationist, part of his wooded garden is a small nature reserve where badgers, foxes, deer and all species of wildlife and birds are welcome. He is in good company, historically- for this is the Hampshire 'Hangers' area once dear to the Selborne naturalist Gilbert White; home to the poet Edward Thomas, who lived at nearby Steep; and enthusiastically recorded by William Cobbett in "Rural Rides".
Mervyn Goode is an artist for whom to live among and know intimately the nuance of his cherished corner of the countryside, in all its moods and seasons is vital the resulting empathy and rapport providing the inspiration which he is dedicating to portraying on canvas.
Not a prolific artist, the joy of painting for Mervyn Goode lies almost as much in the experience of seeking out subject matter, as in the execution of the painting itself, so that the two disciplines are inextricably bound up for him in the one creative process.That process is, for Mervyn Goode, a solitary one. He will walk for hours, and often days at a time.
Venturing sometimes into neighbouring Sussex, Surrey or Wiltshire, and sometimes further afield but more often by tramping the countryside near to his home he delights in walking through the area's sunken 'Green Lanes' and its ancient woodland and meadows; alongside his favourite rivers; and over rolling downland finding constant inspiration in often forgotten and abandoned corners of the countryside.
He is an artist who views the landscape from an intimate viewpoint, rather than seeking out 'the obvious'; for he is mindful of Constable's conselling - that Nature never reveals herself to the arrogant painter in the fullness of her glory, and the landscape painter must go into the field with a humble mind. Resolutely forswearing artistic fashion choosing to paint the landscape which he loves in the way that he wishes Mervyn Goode likes to feel that - while admitting to the early influence of the great traditional landscapists, such as Constable, and more latterly to that of the French Impressionists Sisley, Monet and Pissarro he has developed a style of painting which, while evolving over the years, remains recognisably his own.
Although not a "traveller" by nature, being very much a "home loving" person, both spiritually and artistically, Mervyn Goode has, in recent years, introduced into Exhibitions of his works occasional paintings inspired by his annual travels, to the South of France where the quality of sunlight and warmth on the landscape and seascape appeal to him enormously.
Mervyn Goode's work has been reproduced by the Medici Society, Kingsmead Publications, the Bucentaur Gallery, Royle Publications, Country Cards, the Almanac Gallery and Rosentiel's; and in numerous Fine Art Books and Periodicals and featured in various Television productions/documentaries.
EXTRACTS FROM PRESS REVIEWS/ARTICLES
"Scenes painted with meticulous respect and sympathy by an artist who's in love with trees, nature, creation and peace itself."
The Sunday Telegraph
"Mervyn Goode's landscapes highlight the changing moods of each season. Each of his works catches not only the colour, but the spirit and feel of its subject." Arts Review
Exhibitions
The Medici Galleries, Grafton St, W1
The Bourne Gallery, Reigate, Surrey
David Messum, Marlow, Bucks
David Messum Fine Art, Cork St, W1
John Noott, Broadway, Worcestershire
The David Curzon Gallery, Wimbledon Village, Sw19
The Nevill Gallery, Canterbury, Kent
Century Galleries, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
The Jerram Gallery, Salisbury, Wilts
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