The fourth in a series of interviews with our newly appointed Artist Ambassadors Board, we caught up with UK-based oil painter, Peter Goodhall.
Q: Could you start by introducing yourself to our community?
Hi, my name is Peter Goodhall, I am an oil painter combining both traditional and contemporary representational painting styles.
Q: How long have you been on Artfinder and what has been your experience so far?
I joined Artfinder in the summer of 2014. It has been a super journey with a rapidly expanding and developing site that has gone from strength to strength. Artfinder was my introduction into the real online world of selling. The last seven years have been financially good with flurries of sales and quieter periods, just like selling art was in the world pre-internet.
Q: What made you want to become an artist?
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to explain the circumstances that led me to become a professional artist.
An academic education and parental approval was pointing me in the direction of teaching, either history or geography as a career and at the time that seemed like a good plan. Painting was an activity that I had eagerly pursued from childhood, like most of us. I was painting in oils and really enjoying the challenge before I was a teenager and by the time I was leaving school, my absorption in my art had completely overtaken both history and geography. So it became logical to do a degree in fine art and then probably teach art.
Just a minor twist - by the time I had my degree under my belt, the desire to teach had completely waned but I was selling paintings fairly regularly. So I thought, "could I live off my paintings?". I would be able to enjoy every minute of it, which seemed so idyllic. So with a few commissions and a solo show within the first six months, the path was set and it was looking possible. I had no doubts (and no business plan either, but it was the 1970s!) and I have stuck with it, possibly just to prove a point.
Q: What does the Artfinder community mean to you?
The Artfinder community means a helpful and supportive community - that sort of thing just didn't exist when I was starting off.
Q: What do you hope to achieve by being part of the Ambassadors Board?
I would hope to be able to offer my experiences as a professional artist, to provide guidance to less experienced artists and have the ability to offer insights into how the whole process of selling can be made more appropriate, purposeful and successful from both sides.
Q: What project/artwork are you currently working on?
For me personally, I have my next 12 months of paintings all planned. There's a lot of water and a few nudes in the water. One of them will be a recreation of The Birth Of Venus - it's a long story. Yes, it begins in the mid-1480s and my last visit to it was decades ago, but there's not enough space here for the whole story and my own connection with it. Last year I ventured into the world of circular canvases and now that I have developed a construction method for making my own round stretchers, I have expanded into oval shaped canvases.
Q: If you could only use one art supply for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Difficult one - paint is no use to me without my favourite linen canvas or even brushes - so even down to three items is not ideal. So is my sight the solo supply?
Q: Do you have a final message for our community?
I want my input as an Artist Ambassador to help create the best selling platform there is. Oh, hang on, Artfinder already is! So even better than the best!
