THE ART OF ESCAPISM
Putting paintbrush to paper is a wonderful escape, and as artist Lachlan Goudie has found, the healing powers of art were an extraordinary blessing this year, finds Abi Pooley
Putting paintbrush to paper served as a healing lockdown pastime for artist Lachlan Goudie
Indulging in an hour or two of art is one of the purest forms of escapism, and with the novelty of staring at the four walls of home wearing incredibly thin, 2020’s lockdown proved an opportune time for many of us to let the creative juices run free. Some picked up old instruments, others their old watercolours; but for Glaswegian artist, author and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie, who was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil painters in 2013, the past 12 months have allowed him to channel his efforts into new artistic endeavours – the launch of a book and a beautiful art exhibition.
His new book, The Story of Scottish Art, was launched in autumn 2020 and is an in-depth account of our nation’s creative history spanning 5,000 years, looking at everything from early Neolithic symbols and Celtic metalwork to contemporary works from John Byrne. Meanwhile his exhibition, Once Upon A Time – which is being shown at Edinburgh’s Scottish Gallery – is a portfolio of personal works including landscapes, still life and portrayals of his family in Dorset countryside.
Following the stories behind Lachlan’s colourful series at the Scottish Gallery is an immersive experience, and his works are a joy to behold. However, pre-Covid, Lachlan had intended to display a rather more exotic series. ‘It was meant to be a show which was going to feature a lot of landscapes from Norway, where I had visited a couple of years ago,’ he explains. ‘Then in contrast, I was also going to do a whole series of paintings in Mauritius.’
With UK travel restrictions putting the brakes on his planned two-month excursion to Mauritius, Lachlan found himself looking closer to home for
“Lachlan found inspiration in the form of his nearest and dearest
creative inspiration – and while it was a slow start, he soon hit his stride in rural Dorset. ‘I found it really hard to concentrate, and hard to paint,’ says Lachlan, speaking of the first few months of lockdown. ‘But very hesitantly, I started to paint. I have painted in Dorset quite a lot, so perhaps the reluctance was partly because of the familiarity. After all, it was not the tropics,’ he jests.
In the end, Lachlan found inspiration not in the rural landscape, but in the shape and form of his nearest and dearest. ‘It was during this period that my three-year-old daughter, Clementine, became fixated with princesses,’ he says. ‘She has a series of princess dresses that she insisted she wear from morning till night.
‘I would be painting out in the garden and I’d see her as this vision of turquoise plastic stomping through the fields towards me. I’d read her fairy tales at night and it became an integral part of my experience which filtered into my paintings. Suddenly, I realised that this exhibition was going to be about escapism; about the power of stories, fairy tales, old narratives and the imagination. I set out to create an outlet through my paintings; an escape from all this bad news.’
Finding relief in creativity was certainly a sentiment shared by many in lockdown. Indeed, both amateurs and well-practiced artists like Lachlan found great comfort in putting paint brush to paper. ‘I think during the lockdown a lot of people realised that art, music, writing and painting is not just the frilly stuff on the edge of life. It is really very important to us,’ he says. ‘I did a programme with the BBC called Life Drawing Live! where we did a two-hour life drawing class. It was very popular, and
I realised that at the same time across the country, even across the world, people were getting their pencils and pads out. I felt a sense of community, even though we were all isolated. While I was out with my easel, an activity that could have felt very pointless during this period when the news was so relentless and profoundly bad, the sense that I was not alone in finding an outlet in painting was quite comforting.’
Lachlan hopes that his new book, which details both artists’ success stories and struggles over the years, will further cement this sense of community and ‘make art feel accessible to all people’. With 181 illustrations, it is a compelling account of some of the nation’s greatest creative minds, and the artists’ stories can apply to many walks of life. ‘The story of Scottish art is not uniquely the story of art created in Scotland or by Scots,’ says Lachlan. ‘It’s about common human experience. I hope that makes what is created in Scotland just as relevant to someone from Tokyo as it does to someone from Kilmarnock.’
Both fast-paced and entertaining, Lachlan’s book is a personal reflection on Scottish art history. ‘To say “it’s a journey” is a hackneyed phrase,’ he laughs. ‘But this book was very much my tour of Scottish art. It was my personal journey through a subject that is vast. The only way to contain and control such an epic subject is to make it about – as it was for me – the art, the artefacts, and the individuals that have had the most influence on my work.’
Lachlan hopes that both his book and exhibition will spur a renewed sense of enthusiasm for artists and creative minds. ‘That is my ambition,’ he says. ‘If that is something I manage to achieve, I will be very pleased.’ Certainly, if these darker days inspire entire bodies of work from such talents as Lachlan, the past year will seem far richer than we had ever imagined.