Rosemary Goodenough’s work is collected internationally. She is the first female artist to have a sculpture ‘A Woman in Motion’ on permanent display inside Lambeth Palace (on which building first started in 1190) celebrating Margery Kempe 1373-1439 (Artist’s Proof#1) as part of the Lambeth Palace Permanent Art Collection in London. Number 1 in the Edition of 12 is held in the Minster in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Artist’s Proof #1 of the entire Series of 5 Sculptures celebrating Eleanor of Aquitaine was bought by Professor Janina Ramirez, FRSA FRHistS. Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln, Research Fellow in History of Art, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford and BBC Historian and Presenter and Author.

She has paintings in Private Collections in for example, Boston, Cape Town, Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow, London, New York, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxford, Paris and Tennessee.

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.

“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. 

“Every Mark Is A Decision” – Rosemary Goodenough

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EXHIBITIONS & COMMISSIONS

2025

LAMBETH PALACE PERMANENT ART COLLECTION

‘A Woman in Motion’ a sculpture celebrating the 650th anniversary of the birth of Margery Kempe depicting her as a pilgrim joined the Permanent Art Collection at Lambeth Palace in London and is displayed at the entrance to the Archbishop’s Chapel looking towards the Altar. Artist’s Proof #1.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION 2023:

Sculpture for Permanent Installation in King’s Lynn Minster ‘A Woman in Motion’ celebrating the 650th anniversary of the birth of Margery Kempe. depicting her as a pilgrim. #1 of 12.

EXHIBITIONS

2022:

Two Ways of Seeing, Gallery East, Suffolk

2016

British Embassy Tokyo, Japan.

2015

Invited by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to join their Ambassador Programme profiled in the first edition of their new brand magazine.

CORPORATE CHARITY COMMISSION 2012

BT ArtBox for ChildLine – ‘About A Child’ NSPCC HQ

 2011

Wildwood Gallery, Suffolk

The Wicken Vineyard, Suffolk

2010

Art at the Park, Suffolk

Highwayman’s Gallery, Suffolk

2007

Dio Arts Launch - Auckland, New Zealand

CORPORATE COMMISSION 2006

Eurostar Concourse London - 'Aphrodite's Battlewagon' an ArtCar for Vauxhall's Exhibit V for the London Motor Show in association with Magic FM and Visit London

Galerie Landertinger Wagner, Salzburg, Austria

The Arts Club, Dover Street

London, Berlin, Milan and Barcelona for Visit London 

2005

Ryder Street Gallery, London

Home House, London

Spectrum Fine Art, London

 2004

Guest Art Editor, Archidom Magazine, Moscow

2003

A & D Gallery London

Biennale Internazionale Dell'Arte Contemporanea, Florence

2001

Dauntons, London

International Notting Hill Arts Exhibition, London

ING Barings London

2000

La Brocca, London

Cafe Royal, London

The City Gallery London

ING Barings London

Merchant Company Hall, Edinburgh

Millenium Year Resident Artist for the Green Gallery, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

1999

Pollyanna Gallery, Barnsley

Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

ING Barings, London

1998

Ozten Zeki Gallery, Walton Street London

Savoy Hotel London

Lux Centre, Hoxton Square London