Michael Goodwin

Interview with the artist Michael Goodwin —

1. Who are you and what do you do?
Hello, my name is Mike Goodwin. I live in Liverpool, England, and I’m retired from full time employment. I specialise in humorous illustrations.

“You made me love you”

2. Why art?
As a creative person art is something that I have always enjoyed doing. I’ve never been particularly prolific, but I have managed to produce a reasonable body of work, and this has given me a visual record of something that I’ve accomplished over the years.

“The 33rd of August”

3. What is your earliest memory of wanting to be an artist?
As a child I liked to draw and was considered good at it. However, I didn’t have a desire to be an artist – it was just something I liked to do from time to time. Unlike many artists, I am not passionate about my work.

“Pello’s-2”

“Your Cheatin’ Heart”

4. What are your favourite subject(s) and media(s)?
I like to draw people and never draw any scene that doesn’t include people. I am motivated by humour and often inspired by music, Until fairly recently, the majority of my output has been pen and ink drawing with occasional splashes of colour. However I intend to paint more in future. I have also been experimenting with digital art and have produced a series of digital collages in a pop-art, retro style using existing images from my back catalogue. This has allowed me to introduce more colour into my work.

“Tango”

“Metropolis”

5. How do you work and approach your subject?
Text is an important element in my work, so often, the first step for me is to think of a title that sounds good (e.g “The man who irritated women!”), or I might be inspired by a line from a song (e.g “One of us is lying”). I like my images to look amusing, quirky or enigmatic so that they work visually without the text, but more often than not I will add some text to the image or maybe a caption in addition to the title.

“One of us is lying”

6. What are your favourite artwork(s) and artist(s)?
There are so many! Georges Seurat – “Bathers at Asnières,” and early on I was influenced to adopt his pointillist style. Pablo Picasso – the Blue Period and Rose Period paintings, Edward Hopper – “Nighthawks,”  John Nash – “The cornfield.”  English illustrator Thomas Henry (aka Thomas Henry Fisher) who illustrated the children’s series of “Just William” books in pen and ink.

“Wet”

7. What are the best responses you have had to your work?
It’s always nice to be complimented on your work and for me the best compliment is when someone buys a piece of my work.

“Iron man mad eyes”

8. What do you like about your work?
I like that it makes me smile or sometimes even laugh! I realise humour is very subjective and accept that some people may not understand or appreciate what I do, but I like to make work that I, myself, find funny or amusing. Another thing I like about my work is that I am constantly improving. I try to make my latest work better than anything i’ve done previously, although sometimes this is hard to achieve.

“Stop it!”

9. What advice would you give to other artists?
I would tell them that there is no right way or wrong way to paint or draw. There will always be someone who is technically better than you, but does he/she have your imagination? Always do your best work. Don’t be content with something you could do better. Sometimes, perseverance can turn a bad artwork into a good artwork. If not, discard it and do better next time.

“Wettish USA”

10. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
At my age, I tend not to look that far ahead!

Michael Goodwin

LINKS —

 
Website: dot-art.co.uk/product-category/mike-goodwin/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegoodwinprints/