When visiting Joseph Goody’s studio in Camberwell recently we were intrigued by a new series of work the artist had started. Having worked with Joe for a number of years, showing his paintings at the London Art Fair as well as at the home gallery, we’ve always loved his use of colour and the depth of beauty he manages to create in his abstract works as he applies layer after layer of paint using whatever comes to hand, be it brush, card or paint pot lid to make marks on the canvas or paper. A continuous theme with Joe’s work is his interest in the actual process of painting, as he explores the tension between the spontaneity of mark-making and the more systematic placement of paint in his abstract compositions, so it was interesting to see the artist working on a series of paper collages, adding a further dimension and level of tension to his work.
Cavaliero Finn is pleased to be the first gallery to show this new body of work and we’ve selected eight collages from the series available exclusively for our clients.
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Cavaliero Finn talks to Joseph Goody about the new work
CF: Joe can you tell us a bit about these new collages, how they came about and how they are created technically?
JG: They began as a result of different things I had tried that weren’t really working. I had some abandoned relief prints from earlier in the year and I was working on some watercolours that I felt a bit exhausted with. I had tried bits of collage in the past but hadn’t committed to it as a means of making work in itself so I began combining all of these elements as well as oil and gouache, whilst also preparing different surfaces explicitly for collage.
At the time I had also grown a little tired of painting on canvas so I began to follow what I felt the most excited about and that was composing all of these different colours, pigments and surfaces.
In terms of how they are made, a lot of the drawing and formal elements are echoes of the woodcuts that existed at the beginning of the project. I had anticipated having to draw new shapes and forms for each piece, but every time you cut something out you’re left with a negative image that also has great potential, it sets you off in another unanticipated direction so, in that sense, it’s been self-sustaining and interesting.
CF: What is it about working this way in contrast to your larger works in oil on canvas or your series of watercolours where you build up layers of paint through application via the brush or other objects you use?
JG: I think I’ve really enjoyed being able to combine quite radically different surfaces with one another, something that seems quite antithetical to painting where one is trying to compose a coherent ‘whole’ piece.
I mentioned before about using gouache, I’ve never been able to make it work for me previously. I’ve always found the pigment quite dead in relation to watercolour but through working on these collages I’ve increasingly found that dullness, in opposition to other types of colour, so beautiful and necessary. It has an extremely subtle tone that I’ve only really noticed when pairing it with other stronger, punchier elements.
CF: How do you select the colours that you use?
JG: I have a pile of paper cuttings (that I’ve repeatedly failed to organise) and I just find different things catching my eye at different times. I prepare pieces in advance without any real foresight, just trying to be sympathetic to what calls out to what.
The selecting and composing is the part of the process I find I can’t rush, I stick things together and live with them for a while, to be certain they work. In the instances that I’ve rushed, I find that the pieces haven’t been successful and they inevitably get recut, repainted and reworked into other pieces.
CF: How do you see this new body of work developing?
JG: It’s hard to say, at the moment I’m still really enjoying it and making more alongside my painting. I’ve considered working on some larger pieces. I’ll likely carry on until it gets a bit too forced, though it’s given me a lot of ideas for some new prints and paintings.
Joe’s series of collages are available unframed on the Cavaliero Finn website now for a limited period of time, priced at £525 each.
Please do get in contact if you would like any of the work featured or if you would like to talk to us about framing options. -
About Joseph Goody
Joseph Goody graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2011 and won the Neville Burston Award for Painting. He studied at the Prince’s Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School) where he won The Patrons Club Prize in 2012. Since then Joseph’s work has gone from strength to strength having had solo shows in a number of leading contemporary galleries.
Several of Joseph’s larger paintings were recently showcased by interiors specialist Miles de Lange and interior designer Timothy Mather for one of their London projects alongside work by designer Alexander Lamont. The images from the project are now featured in Andrew Martin’s annual Interior Design Review.
Limit, oil on canvas, 220cm x 140cm (diptych), 2018
Featured image ©Zac and Zac photography
Go Over, oil on linen, 120 x 85 cm, 2017
Featured image ©Zac and Zac photography
See more work by Joseph Goody
