Experience of place is central to Martin Goold’s artistic activity. The dramatic coastline of Lyme Bay provides powerful reference points for his work: the movement of air, vapour, current and tide, and the constantly shifting character and atmosphere of the sea. Moments of transition that mark the passage of time have special importance.

This engagement is strongly felt but his city roots have equal prominence. In his London riverscapes he transforms iconic skylines into personal motifs. The action of natural elements threatens to dissolve recognisable form and suggests the frailty of foothold.

A myriad of references emerge: personal, artistic, literary, historical, social, and the residue of this encounter with the character of places provides momentum for work.

Goold favours working in series. Here he is able to re-tune responses and open up deepening familiarity and possibility. His working processes constantly seek balance between control and accident, and propose correspondence to the sensation of place. Often methods such as spontaneous gesture are set against more measured graphic techniques. This animates deliberate tensions, and together with the existing discourse between abstraction and figuration, seemingly impossible partners are brought together.

Originally from London, Goold trained at Chelsea School of Art, completing the MA Fine Art Painting in 1984. Following a series of group exhibitions at The Warwick Arts Trust in London in the 1980’s he went on to participate in solo and group exhibitions in UK galleries, art centres and public and National Trust venues. In recent years he has exhibited extensively across the West Country and at New Grafton Gallery and Clarion Contemporary Art in London.