SELECTED WORK
click to enlarge
Further Links
Oscar Goodall retrospective at the Scottish Showcase Gallery.
www.showcasegallery.co.uk
Oscar Goodall
Oscar Goodall was born in Australia in 1924 and moved to Perthshire as a child. He graduated from Dundee College of Art and Hospitalfield with a Diploma in Drawing and Painting, but only after serving in the RAFVR as aircrew from 1942 until the end of the war. As a natural rebel, and being very expressive, Oscar later became president of the students’ union of the college and joined CND.
Since then, his life has been dedicated to his art. He initially designing cinema posters and painted theatre scenery, then worked an art teacher at school camps for underprivileged children, as principal teacher at Glenrothes and as a lecturer for the Arts Council, until a heart attack forced his retirement.
Undisturbed by this, Oscar has continued to paint and has often exhibited at most of the major Scottish shows, including the RSA, RSW and SSA and group and solo exhibitions throughout the UK and abroad.
Oscar enjoys experimenting and perfecting his art and his style and technique have changed over the sixty years he has been working at his chosen trade. His paintbrush has seen many variations, from the life painting and still life studies of his college years, through abstractation, expessionism, realism and back again, only to discover that they are all part of art.
“Separate ambitions require techniques that suit. I have a
dislike of paintings which are of subjects chosen to suit
existing skills. One sees many such. In an age when the
acceleration of the speed of change is almost incredible,
to stand still is to isolate oneself.
We live in a complex world. Most of my work starts with
enthusiasm and a few brush strokes. An empty canvas is
like a child, full of infinite promise. The picture develops in
an organic way, one brushstroke in relation to the previous
marks. On occasion something seems to happen and a
momentum takes over, time becomes meaningless, inertia
and thinking in terms of logic cease to exist. Self is gone.”
A quiet and thoughtful man, Oscar will not brag about his
success, though it has been considerable, and his work is sought after by collectors both at home and abroad.