Richard Goold: A New Nostalgia

Richard Goold gained the Jackson’s Alternative Award in Jackson’s Artwork Prize this 12 months together with his work My Father and Mr Cheese Planting Customary Roses. On this interview, he discusses drawing with Tesco highlighters, adapting his method of working since changing into a dad, and the importance of hessian.

Above picture: Richard Goold in his studio

My Father and Mr Cheese Planting Customary Roses, 2023
Richard Goold
Oil sticks, acrylic on hessian, 102 x 76 cm | 40.1 x 29.9 in

Josephine: Might you inform us about your inventive background?

Richard: I’ve all the time painted from a really younger age, extra so than drawing, even. My mom is a painter, so I grew up going to the Nationwide Gallery together with her and messing round with paint whereas she painted. It’s one thing I’ve all the time accomplished and needed to do for so long as I can keep in mind. I went to UCA Farnham to do my high quality artwork diploma and had some nice tutors and visiting lecturers. This was an incredible surroundings and place to push my follow. Going it alone after uni could be daunting, however I’d met some nice individuals who helped within the years following.

Lefkes Prosecco, 2024
Richard Goold
Acrylic and oil bar on hessian, 30 x 40 cm | 11.8 x 15.7 in

Josephine: What does a typical working day within the studio appear like for you? Do you’ve any necessary routines or rituals?

Richard: My studio days look very totally different in the intervening time as my son has simply turned one, so I’ve to slot in studio time round his naps usually. This results in brief and targeted intervals of portray fairly than my earlier leisurely, slower tempo. This can be a good factor, although, as I feel it makes me extra rigorous in my course of and method, and I respect the time I’ve to color extra. I can’t work with out music, in the intervening time I’m making my new physique of labor listening to Deftones’ again catalogue. It’s very nostalgic of my teenage years, and my latest works draw closely on nostalgia.

Shut up of Arm Stubble, 2025
Richard Goold
Acrylic and oil bar on hessian, 76 x 61 | 30 x 24 in

Josephine: Which supplies or instruments may you not reside with out?

Richard: Outdated Holland acrylic paint color Caput Mortuum Violet and R&F Pigment Sticks in Dianthus Pink 3. My staple gun, hessian is hard to stretch correctly.

Studio paint trolley

Josephine: Do you’re employed from a reference? What’s your course of?

Richard: All the things begins with a drawing. Normally with actually crappy pens and highlighters purchased from Tesco. I’m not treasured about my drawing in any respect, and it’s very releasing. I usually want I may get extra of that into my work. Drawing from reminiscence is the beginning. I then switch that into paint, which brings additional abstraction on the hessian. Uncooked hessian is an odd floor to work on. It absorbs all the things, I don’t work on it primed. It requires lots of layering. I usually overwork older work that haven’t labored to search out new methods into them.

Sketchbooks in studio

Josephine: Do you commonly draw or hold a sketchbook? In that case, how does this inform your work?

Richard: On a regular basis. I attempt to attract every single day. It’s been a place to begin for my work for some time now. I’d like to do a present of simply my drawings sooner or later. Mark-making has been on the core of my follow for a very long time, and the marks made by the varied pens I exploit in the intervening time are a giant a part of informing my work.

Acrylic paints

Josephine: Have you ever ever had a interval of stagnation in creativity? In that case, what helped you overcome it?

Richard: At one level, I didn’t paint for 2 years, between the years of 2021 and 2023. I misplaced my method with all of it and burnt out. After a 12 months, I began making sketches with biros a bit, after which it wasn’t till I went to Indonesia that I began portray once more after seeing a person mixing pigments to make a material dye, which actually impressed me. One thing I’d like to do sooner or later is make my very own paint.

Josephine: Are there any particular artists or mentors who’ve impressed you?

Richard: Presently, I’m impressed by two painters, a Danish artist referred to as Lasse Thorst and a Brazilian artist, Maya Weishof.

Arm Stubble and Tea Backyard

Josephine: What have been you serious about or exploring on the time you made My Father and Mr Cheese Planting Customary Roses? What impressed it, and the way did it come to be?

Richard: It’s a portray from reminiscence of a photograph of my dad and a person nicknamed Mr Cheese, planting commonplace roses. The photograph could be very sentimental and nostalgic of my childhood. I used to be exploring breaking free from portray instantly from photos and dealing extra from reminiscence. The hessian floor was additionally new to me on the time of portray the work; it was my second portray on the fabric.

Ten Kemps, 2025
Richard Goold
Acrylic on unprimed jute, 20 x 30 cm | 7.8 x 11.8 in

Josephine: Why did this piece really feel like the correct one to submit?

Richard: It felt like a turning level in my follow. A piece deeply private to me, and likewise the place portray on hessian began to make sense going ahead.

Josephine: How did it really feel to maneuver by way of the levels of the competitors and win a Jackson’s Alternative Award?

Richard: I felt honored to get by way of every stage with such an incredible group of artists. Some who I’ve admired for such a very long time. It was nice to exhibit alongside them.

Shut up of Hour of the Owl, 2025
Richard Goold
Acrylic on uncooked jute, 80 x 60 cm | 31.4 x 23.6 in

Josephine: Are you able to discuss in regards to the function of the portray floor in your follow? What drew you to start out engaged on hessian?

Richard: Hessian has ties to agriculture, and I labored with it so much after I was youthful, engaged on the rose nursery with my dad. So it’s partially autobiographical. I additionally needed a floor with a denser weave, which reworked the best way I made work. It compelled me to work in a different way.

Hessian, used for portray floor

Josephine: Your work evokes conventional portray by way of the poses and home duties of your topics, but the colors and titles pull us into up to date life. Is that this distinction one thing you deliberately discover?

Richard: It’s. I’ve all the time been impressed by medieval tapestries; it bleeds into my work so much. The titles are actually necessary to me. They’re as necessary because the portray. They supply a unique method into the narrative of the portray.

Work in progress

Josephine: Are there any new supplies or concepts you’re excited to discover utilizing your prize?

Richard: I’ve been working with lots of new color palettes to attempt to push my new physique of labor ahead. I’ve used the prize to attempt some paints I wouldn’t often work with. Going again to a smaller scale for some time has additionally been releasing.

New works on wall

Josephine: What’s developing subsequent for you?

Richard: I’m at the moment taking a while to only get my head down and work on a brand new assortment of work. I’m nonetheless studying and creating my strategy of engaged on hessian.

Comply with Richard on Instagram

Go to Richard’s web site