Lachlan Goudie | The Media Response

Last year Goudie visited the Lofoten Islands inside the Arctic Circle and there is more than a little bit of "once upon a time” about their landscape too. It’s the landscape of Frozen and of the Snow Queen, one of his daughter’s favourite stories. In The Frozen North and North Mountains, he paints a world of jagged mountains, ice and snow and the fox sneaks into the latter picture too. It is not simply a world of black and white however. In Arctic Palace and the Lost World the setting sun paints it all scarlet.

Goudie’s diverse oeuvre ranges from whimsical, fey studies of Dorset countryside to robust semi-imagined landscapes of the Highlands and the Lofoten Islands. The flaming reds and brooding darker tones recall some of Munch’s Norwegian landscapes while his still-lives place him in the French, Italian and Scottish tradition.

His style of presenting is expansive and enthusiastic; much like his powers of description on the page. His painting style is also full of brio, with an expressive use of colour and a confident line. He spent seven years documenting the construction of several ships at the Govan BAE Systems shipyard, including the last vessel to have a traditional launch on the slipways of the Clyde, HMS Duncan. He created over 70 drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures for this series; his skill as a draughtsman rising to the surface at every turn. Tender portraits of shipyard workers contrast with complex depictions of the interiors of ships under construction.

The collection of works offer a glimpse into Goudie’s own experience and inadvertently commemorate this strange moment in time. Here, Lachlan Goudie reveals what he is saying to us in his new work.

As we "tumble through the looking glass" into a surreal world of lockdown and anxiety, Lachlan has escaped into the art of his imagination, inspired by the nightly ritual of reading stories to his young daughter and her determination to inhabit the idyllic land of make-believe.