ABOUT ROSEMARY GOODENOUGH

Rosemary Goodenough is a Contemporary Impressionist Painter and Sculptor.  She sculpts in clay which is then Cast using the Lost Wax process in Bronze or Aluminium. She paints with oils using knives, cloths and her hands on board or panel.  She also draws with Charcoal after having created various surfaces to make full use of the remarkable flexibility of the medium.

She has a particular interest in Medieval Women hence her series of sculptures celebrating the highly educated and extremely powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sculpture celebrating Margery Kempe, Christian Mystic, intrepid Pilgrim and Author of the first Autobiography in the English Language. She also wanted to explore her feelings about being a woman in the 21st Century the resulting piece being her sculpture ‘Elemental Woman’.

Rosemary Goodenough is currently researching the life of another Medieval woman, Lady Murasaki Shikibu the Japanese writer of the Tale of Genji (generally acknowledged as being the first novel in the world) with a view to making a sculpture to celebrate her.

She works from her Studio near King's Lynn (where Margery Kempe was born in 1373) in Norfolk and is married to astrophysics researcher and photographer Michael Waller-Bridge FRAS.

NOTE: To view information of prices, dimensions etc. of the various works of art please note that for technical reasons unfortunately that information is not available on a mobile ‘phone.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT by ROSEMARY GOODENOUGH

‘Every Mark is a Decision’

As an Artist I am viscerally aware of the straight-line connection between me and the Artists who made their Marks with such verve on the walls of the Chauvet Caves approximately 35,000 years ago. We don't know their names, sex or motivations but the drive and passion to make Marks is a primitive and inescapable human need and this straight-line connection between Artists across millennia will never be broken. Being part of a link in this past and future chain is fundamental to my life as an Artist.

My father was passionately interested in sculpture and paintings and I will always be grateful to him for teaching me how to look at art in great detail and it has informed how I work as there is a great deal more to artistic creation than the making of marks. Looking is incredibly important. People always ask how long it takes to make a piece and the first answer is ‘a lifetime’ and the next answer varies from work to work. As an example of this process of looking, there was a painting I was pleased with but knew something was wrong. I put it on a spare easel in my studio and kept glancing at it and 8 months later I realised that I didn’t need to add to it: it needed to have something removed. I grabbed a palette knife, removed the ‘offending’ marks and the painting was finished! Proof to me at least that painting involves a lot of looking, not always doing.

I’m particularly interested in the Japanese concept of ‘Ma’ which I understand is to do with absence of activity so for example in music it is the silence between the sounds, in painting it’s the unfilled space that leaves the viewer able to use their own imagination. To me the negative space is as important as the positive space and in my paintings and drawings every mark is a decision and every decision to not make a mark is absolutely critical to the final piece.

JUNE 2025: INAUGURATION OF ‘A WOMAN IN MOTION’ INTO THE LAMBETH PALACE PERMANENT ART COLLECTION.

Danny Johnson MVO - Archbishops’s Special Projects Director

‘The Lambeth Palace Art Collection: A Living Legacy of Faith, History and Welcome’

Lambeth Palace is proud to welcome Rosemary Goodenough’s sculpture ‘A Woman in Motion’ into its collection - a powerful and evocative tribute to Margery Kempe, one of the most remarkable and resilient women in the history of the Church.

This sculpture does more than commemorate a singular life; it invites reflection on the often-overlooked contributions of women to the spiritual and ecclesiastical life of the Church across the centuries. Margery Kempe, mystic, pilgrim and author of the first autobiography in the English language was a woman of profound faith and extraordinary courage. Her journey bought her to Lambeth Palace in the early 15th century, where she sought validation for her spiritual call and endured public humiliation and threats of persecution.

Through Goodenough’s sensitive and symbolic rendering, we are reminded of the trials Margery faced not only as a woman of deep conviction in a time of doctrinal suspicion, but as a voice of spiritual authority in a world that often sought to silence her. The sculpture’s torn yet graceful robes, the hidden hands trembling with fear and the bowed head in prayer all speak to the tension between vulnerability and strength, persecution and perseverance.

By placing ‘A Woman in Motion’ in the historic setting of Lambeth Palace we acknowledge both the pain and the progress of the Church’s journey, particularly for women. This work becomes a vital educational touchstone prompting guests and visitors to consider the evolving role of women in the Church - from the margins to the centre of spiritual life and leadership.

We are grateful to Rosemary Goodenough for her vision and to all who continue to illuminate the stories of women like Margery Kempe whose faith and fortitude continue to inspire.

SPEECH AT THE ‘RECEPTION OF WELCOME’ OF ‘A WOMAN IN MOTION’ INTO THE

LAMBETH PALACE ART COLLECTION

Rosemary Goodenough - Sculptrix

Thank you so much for your lovely words Danny.

Margery Kempe is one of the most fascinating characters I've ever come across. When The Reverend Canon Dr. Mark Dimond Vicar of King's Lynn Minster commissioned me to make a sculpture for permanent installation in the Minster celebrating the 650th anniversary of her birth in King's (then Bishop's) Lynn I was thrilled as I have a bit of a thing about Medieval Women and he had seen my series of sculptures celebrating Eleanor of Aquitaine.

I started my research by of course reading 'The Book of Margery Kempe' the first autobiography in the English language and at the beginning found her intensely irritating, actually completely maddening and thought she was merely attention seeking. Nowadays of course she would be treated for post-natal depression but in the early 15th Century she was just seen as bonkers and possibly heretical which put her in harms way many times. By the time I had finished reading her book, the irritation remained but to a much lesser degree and I found myself absolutely convinced by her sincerity and the profoundness of her faith. Professor Anthony Bale's book 'A Mixed Life' was hugely informative and beautifully written so please take a bow Anthony ......... as was ‘Femina’ by Professor Janina Ramirez who very much wanted to join us this evening but sadly is on a plane to China right now so unable to be here. Having seen and loved my sculpture of Margery Kempe she bought one complete set of all 5 of my series of sculptures celebrating Eleanor of Aquitaine one her great heroines which was fantastic. 'Femina' was the word used by Monks during the Reformation and was stamped on books by or about women - meaning to be destroyed, Janina describes how 'The Book of Margery Kempe' somehow escaped destruction and was lost until the 1930's when it was discovered in a cupboard during a game of ping pong when a ball flew off the table and shot through a crack in the cupboard door in a country house. The owner was quite happy to chuck all the old papers onto a bonfire but thankfully one of his guests was a curator at the V & A and recognised its significance!

There is only one other sculpture celebrating Margery Kempe which is on the Camino in Spain and depicts her as a writer so I thought I would focus on her life as an incredibly doughty and intrepid Pilgrim, extraordinarily challenging for a woman in the 15th century and of course being Margery she drove everyone about her up the wall, she really was entirely lacking in any sense that she could make her own life easier. I have depicted her wearing white as that is what she was convinced Jesus had commanded her to do and for which she was prosecuted and persecuted and indeed here in Lambeth Palace a woman wanted her to be burned at the stake in Smithfield, a terrifying prospect which is why she kept her hands tucked inside her clothes as they shook so much but she felt the need to speak robustly in her own defence without appearing to be afraid. She walked in the gardens here at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop Arundel and clearly bought him round to thankfully believing in her sincerity. I had her cast in Aluminium as a nod to her love of fine clothes and also because to my mind it has a more spiritual sensibility than bronze which to me is more about power and of course her robes have been laquered bright white. Her 'top-knot' is my way of denoting her indomitable spirit, both secular and religious as described in Anthony's book about her wish to live 'A Mixed Life'.

A couple of final things. You may be interested to hear that at the end of the pouring of the aluminium at the Foundry, there was a for me and my husband Michael Waller-Bridge a very moving moment as the two foundrymen whose work I am in awe of, removed their helmets and gauntlets, looked straight at each other and shook hands - a great tradition marking the end of the most dangerous part of the lost wax process that has been unchanged for about 6,500 years. This courtesy ritual always marks the end of the day of Pouring and the mutual respect between them felt very emotional as it is a very dangerous environment.

I cannot thank Danny Johnson enough, it has been a complete joy working with him and his passion for and profound knowledge about Lambeth Palace is utterly inspiring and I could not be more thrilled with his decision to place Margery Kempe in such a strategically relevant position - the Lollards Tower to her left, the Archbishop's Chapel ahead of her and within that, the balcony leading to the room to where Archbishop Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer, to my mind some of the most beautiful writing in the English language. It is a great honour for me as Danny kindly told me that I am the first female artist to have a sculpture inside Lambeth Palace and it is now part of the Permanent Art Collection here.

Thank you as ever to my husband Michael Waller-Bridge without whose morale boosting presence and love I would be bereft.

“ET IN ARCADIA EGO”

A Personal Appreciation by Christopher Penn - Private Art Consultant

Rosemary Goodenough’s new work is inspired by nature. 

She paints the trees and flowers, the oceans and mountain lakes that she so obviously loves in the hope, I suspect, that we will feel the same sense of wonder and delight in the natural world as she does. 

But she does not try to achieve this by describing, in paint, the colour and texture of the branch of a tree or the intricate detail of a flower in bloom. You will not recognise the familiar profile of a mountainous skyline as none of these things are her concern. 

These paintings do not record physical or topographical details. They express, to more profound effect, the constantly changing feelings and sensations we experience when immersed in nature. When she paints trees, we can believe that we hear the wind rustling in their leaves. When she paints a flower, we know instinctively that its scent is intoxicating. We can almost breathe the cool mountain air. The artist is engaging not just our visual, but our full range of sensory perception. 

There is a lyrical quality to her work, which hovers somewhere between abstraction and impressionism. At one moment, as the titles of her works reveal, she is calling up the sound and feel of soft rain, the next a cool breeze and then, perhaps, the changing light. These are the things that stimulate our memories of the places we have loved long after the visual detail is forgotten. The images, just as our recollections, are indistinct.

But there is also a tension in what might otherwise be mistaken for mere sentimentality. There is a dark and mysterious quality to these paintings and, if there is a gentle hint of sadness too, it is only the yearning for something lost but fondly remembered.  

I wonder whether these evaporating images might also be alluding to the gradual degradation of the world they describe through climate change? Even if unintended, the point is quietly but powerfully made by simply reminding us of the fading glories of nature that might one day be lost for ever. 

It comes as no surprise to learn that Rosemary Goodenough is not only a painter but also a sculptor. As with her sculptures, these paintings are also carefully crafted, sometimes with a knife, a cloth or even her hands.

If you prefer to look at them for their simple beauty alone, you will be just as generously rewarded.  

‘TWO WAYS OF SEEING’

Amanda Geitner - Director, East Anglia Art Fund

This exhibition features recent work by artists Jules George from Suffolk and Rosemary Goodenough from Norfolk, bringing together two distinct approaches to the landscape. The title of the exhibition, suggested by Rosemary Goodenough, draws on the influential 1972 television series and subsequent book by John Berger, Ways of Seeing, which explored the ways in which ‘every image embodies a way of seeing’ and how we look and express what we see reveals something of significance about us. 

Rosemary Goodenough has been an artist for over 50 years - self-taught, she cannot remember a time when she did not draw or paint. She now works exclusively in her studio in Norfolk, painting directly to the board or panel without prior sketches or studies, taking pleasure in the colour, sweep and slide of her medium. There is never a plan or clear intention, works are painted in the moment, entirely of her imagination, the life of her mind reflected in echoes of the world – finding form in landscapes and seascapes, trees and flowers. 

Moments of representation - a copse of trees or fallen petals from a flower – conjure places remembered or convey the beauty of both life and decay. Perhaps even more evocative is the artist’s construction of space within her paintings. Deepest pools of colour are brought to the surface with impasto that is applied with hands and palette knives. Thinner veils of colour are applied with a cloth, the different areas of the painting worked with the corresponding hand, Goodenough is entirely ambidextrous.  Remarkably, Goodenough is also synaesthetic - a linking of sight and sound which means that colours and form have equivalence to music, allowing her to orchestrate her palette. Single works explore the full range of a pigment - in its most translucent application ‘sap green’ glows almost with palest yellow and at its most intense forms a dense emerald black. This grand chromatic scale sings on the board. 

Some of these most recent works have been years in mind before being realised on the board. The other-worldly Moonfleet was 8 years in process. Sea Fever was inspired by the John Masefield poem -  I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky … The ethereal forms sail in an unknown sea, in transit from one world to another, capturing in their sails not only the motion of wind and water but a sense of memory, loss and longing.