Lachlan Goudie is returning to The Scottish Gallery, bringing new works this November. Painting Paradise refers not only to stunning locations the artist has visited and painted, including Scotland, Mauritius and the South of France, but also to a second meaning; for Goudie, painting is the paradise.
A Scottish artist, writer and broadcaster, whose paintings have received numerous awards and are exhibited regularly in London, Edinburgh and New York. Goudie has written and presented several documentaries for the BBC, including his landmark series ‘The Story of Scottish Art’, which was critically acclaimed and saw him receive a nomination from the Royal Television Society Scotland for the ‘Onscreen personality of the year’ award.
Goudie’s artistic range is broad, incorporating portraits, landscapes and still life works. He is an advocate for the value of technique and craft in contemporary art and was schooled in painting by his father, the artist Alexander Goudie. Widley praised for his broadcasting work, his ability to articulate strong feelings through his writing and presenting, as well as his art, has made him one of our best cultural commentators.
This is an exhibition of paintings which Goudie found impossible to create two years ago. His last exhibition at the Scottish Gallery was created during lockdown, when he had planned to travel to the Indian Ocean, for an eight week trip that never was. Painting Paradise is that dream made real, an exhibition inspired by a long-postponed painting expedition to the tropics as well as several other painted journeys undertaken during the last 18 months of liberty – from the Western Isles to Inverness-shire, from the Cote d’Azur to beyond the blue horizon. It’s an exhibition about escapism, about reinvigorating our battered sense of optimism and joie de vivre, about the delight and the opportunities that come with being free to travel. A privilege we used to take for granted.
Painting Paradise is divided into five sections. First, the results of a short residency in the New Town of Edinburgh that produced an elegant series of architectural interiors. A series of still lifes,
Goudie’s chief studio occupation, follow. From the city and studio, the exhibition then journeys to the Highlands and Western Isles; a commission in Inverness-shire gave Goudie the chance to work deep in ancient woodlands and capture the autumn colours of rolling countryside, and in Barra he captured the fresh, Atlantic atmosphere. The exhibition continues with work made in the South of France in Autumn 2021 where views through open-shuttered windows and down to the Cote d’Azur capture the high colour and heat of the sun. Finally, he captures the palm trees, distant mountains and towering skies over the Indian Ocean of Mauritius.
Painting Paradise is also an exhibition about an artist following in the footsteps of his painting heroes. Retracing S J Peploe’s journeys to Barra, following behind JD Fergusson to the Cote D’Azur, making an artistic pilgrimage to the tropics just as Gauguin, Winslow Homer or Peter Doig have done before him. And in each instance, learning from these artistic mentors has been a key part of Goudie’s creative journey – exploring and understanding how these great painters described and depicted the places they visited, on canvas. In the process Goudie came to realise that for an artist the studio is in itself, the greatest destination – the room where previous travels and experiences are finally distilled into the large paintings that constitute this exhibition.
Goudie comments:
Painting pictures can often appear to be a solitary business, but every time I pick up a brush I don’t feel alone at all, in fact I sense a crowd of other painters bustling around me. They are my artist heroes, the people whose work I often study, the painters who always have something to teach me. In the studio, an archive of images created on the road from Barra to the Mediterranean and Mauritius, comes into its own. It’s here that sketches and memories simmer and ferment. Places recently visited rematerialize on canvas, memories saturated, colours heightened, experiences intensified. Together my mentors and memories conspire to make this small room and its disparate collection of objects, the ultimate painter’s paradise.
The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Thursday 3rd – Saturday 26th November 2022