Stuart Godfrey

As a representational landscape painter I try to sort out, analyze
and compress all the visual stimuli around me and arrange it on a
two dimensional surface. I strive to depict the essence of the scene
in front of me as honestly as I see it- I can’t improve on mother
nature. I tend to avoid deliberate, exaggerated abstraction.
Hopefully the painting process itself imparts a personality to my
work that creates both a faithful observation and a unique piece of
art.

I paint both on location and in the studio and I’m comfortable in a
variety of mediums. My larger studio paintings are in oils but I’m
also passionate about my travel sketchbooks which I fill with
gouache and ink studies.

My work has been exhibited in galleries in Toronto, New York and
San Fransisco and is collected throughout North America.
After a successful career as an illustrator- storyboarding and
producing concept visuals for the Toronto advertising industry, my
attention is now focused on fine art. Strong drawing skills, essential
in my illustration career, have been a huge help in becoming a
landscape painter.

I’m particularly drawn to costal environments and the wealth of
subject matter it provides. As a young boy I was fortunate to enjoy
summer vacations in Newfoundland and spent many afternoons
sketching in and around the fishing villages of the Avalon Peninsula.
No doubt this has left an imprint on me and steers my painting
direction, as does my passion for travel. Whether hiking Portugal’s
western coastline, the East Coast trail in Newfoundland or the West
Highland Way in Scotland, many of my paintings get conceived on
these hiking trips and are brought to life back in my studio through
field notes, small gouache studies and photographs.