Gary was standing outside when I pulled up in the van and parked out the back at the Phoenix. He was smoking a roll up. I made a comment about having given up that morning and therefore not hanging about as I stumbled passed with all my gear. I came back out after dumping it all on the desk and said I was sure I could handle it and we swapped anecdotes about preferences for roll-ups over cigarettes.

A most excellent class. Low key and very inspiring. Gary showed us some of his work. Paintings he’d done nearly 5 years ago and drawings from the last few weeks. He has a dry sense of humour and denies any intentional meaning behind his quite dark bold images often of girls, birds and wolves. He says he gets bored easily and he paints quickly and freely from his imagination. His images are informed by lots of observational drawing.

We had a good long stretch of time to get on with our own work and I really got a lot from hearing him talk about his way of working without self censorship. I decided to do the same and just let myself do whatever came next.

To see Gary Goodman’s work
http://www.gary-goodman.co.uk