I paint and draw portraits, figures and landscape, in styles ranging between realism and abstraction, or combining them in different ways. My approach is exploratory, trying various ways to represent the object (a face, a body, a tree) using various media (at present mainly graphite, charcoal, and watercolour). Each new motif can suggest a new choice of materials and a new approach to making the image. Insights into the visual field can trigger discoveries about the technical possibilities of materials, and vice versa. Also, a discovery process for viewers can be created by leaving something for their imagination to complete, with parts of the image left vague or unfinished.

My landscape imagery ranges from studies of an individual branch to semi-abstract pictures which evoke configurations of natural forms rather than literal descriptions of them. Shorelines, for example, can suggest ambiguous, evocative images of driftwood, rocks, islands and water.

My portrait and figure drawing and painting also aim at emotive expression through suggestive form. With portraiture, I explore each face as a meeting of physical shapes and emotional implications. With the figure, I aim to capture the drama of each pose, and emphasize what to me is its most expressive feature or aspect.

Investigations of natural and human forms are not mutually exclusive. I let these two strands of work influence each other, substituting their respective techniques, media and visions. What is learned in one strand can be transferred to the other.

Painting and drawing have been passions since teenage years, pursued more intensively in the last two decades, especially since my recent retirement from teaching English at UBC. Over the years I have taken painting and drawing classes at Emily Carr, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the Vancouver Art Academy. I am a member of the Federation and of the Basic Inquiry Life Drawing Society. I have given creativity retreats at the Atlin Centre for the Arts and elsewhere, as well as workshops combining meditation with art and writing. Literature and poetry are also lifetime pursuits: as well as critical articles and books, I have published a translation of Rilke’s late poems with Ronsdale Press. For details, see http://www3.telus.net/ggood/