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Saturday, July 24, 2021

Lockdown Art #4: Spring Lockdown by Sarah Godsill

My lockdown art this week is by artist and illustrator Sarah Godsill.

As we all know when the first lockdown was announced on March 23rd, everything seemed to grind to a halt.

Sarah found it increasingly hard to concentrate on work and ignore news bulletins. So she decided to use the strange circumstances as a way to connect with friends and family by asking them for photographs of themselves in their most typical lockdown activity for a painting.

This is what she has to say about her painting shows people at work and play, round the table, cooking, reading, gardening, getting out for walks or stuck at computer screens. They come from all over the UK, Spain, USA, Canada, Chile, Venezuela and Singapore.

"I started to envisage a Zoom screen full of everyone’s images. I didn’t know how many photos there would be and I had originally planned to do individual paintings, but on a practical level it was easier to grid a canvas into 64 slots and add the images as they were sent to me.

As I worked on each individual image it was comforting to think about the people represented, whether they were far away geographically or just around the corner here in Frome. We couldn’t meet in person and hug - we still don’t know when that will be possible - so it was a lovely way to feel a bit of a connection with everyone.”

Spring Lockdown by Sarah Godsill
oil 100 x 120 cm

“It’s been a challenging year for most of us and especially difficult for those who have been affected by Covid19 or are shielding or caring for vulnerable people, but it’s also highlighted the most valuable things in life and all that we’re grateful for.

The incredible weather made it more manageable in the first few months and that really stood out in lots of the photos I received; I never used green in my paintings before this year.”
The resulting painting has now been accepted for hanging by 

  • the Annual Open exhibition of Bath Society of Artists  at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, which opens online on November 2nd.
  • the Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club - where you can see it on the wall. I'm thinking it must have been spotted back in November by Peter Brown who is also a member of the Bath Society of Artists
Her photo (below) of the mandatory "me and my painting" illustrates neatly how big it is.

 

The spinoffs

Once the lockdown composite painting was almost completed Sarah also started posting them on her Instagram page and the positive response made her wonder whether it was something she could offer whilst her work as an Events Illustrator is on hold.
“My work drawing at weddings isn’t a possibility for the foreseeable future but I’m still keen to record people’s special moments from photographs at least, whether it’s a significant event or a positive memory from this strange year.”
During the first lockdown, Sarah also painted five ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’, one of which will appear in a book of the same name which was published by Bloomsbury in 2020 with all royalties going to ‘NHS Charities Together’.



About Sarah Godsill

You can find out more about Sarah Godsill on http://sarahgodsill.co.uk/ (plus see her other websites / social media below)

She did a Foundation Diploma, Kingston Polytechnic (1983-1984) followed by a BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic (1986-1989). 

Since 2000, she's been working as
  • a figurative artist - for exhibitions and commissions
  • an illustrator
  • an Events Illustrator - being the guest artist at weddings and other events. (see www.eventsillustration.co.uk for more details) 
She's also exhibited her artwork at Bath Society of Artists since 2011 - and a number of other exhibitions

Plus you can see what she gets up to on:
on

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