Leila Godden

“Drawing on her poetic observations of the water, the artist’s paintings are built from a mixture of improvisation and considered responses to the marks made as they reveal themselves, coaxing the paintings to evolve and settle, until she is completely happy with the finished piece”.

Leila Godden is a contemporary painter specialising in seascapes and abstract paintings using acrylics. Her seascapes explore the vast panorama of changing light, dramatic weather and powerful water, framed by rocks solid with history, yet transient with time and the rhythm of the earth. Brought up on the coast, this environment has a deep resonance within her. In light of more uncertain times during 2020, the artist’s oeuvre became more gestural and abstract, responding to time spent in her garden. Godden abandoned a limited palette, creating paintings imbued with the vibrancy inspired by sunlight on petals. Moments of pleasure and joy are translated onto canvas in a myriad of shapes and gestural marks which have been allowed to form and settle. The artist’s experimentation produces nuanced pieces, in which elements are pared back, inviting space into the compositions. Her paintings are intended to evoke a visceral response in you, the viewer, something deeper than just “seeing”. Perhaps it taps into a memory or feeling personal to you. Beyond words but sensed and understood.  Leila Godden is based near Lewes in East Sussex, she exhibits in London with the Free Painters and Sculptors (FPS) and is represented by Signet Contemporary Art, Chelsea and Bell Fine Art, Winchester along with its sister gallery London Contemporary Art. Her work has been selected for ING Discerning Eye and the Society of Women Artists (SWA) at the Mall Galleries in London, The Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and C24 Gallery in New York City.