DELIA TOURNAY-GODFREY

Known mainly as a painter of the East Anglian coast and its inhabitants, Delia made a slightly delayed start by not going straight from full-time education to art school, as was more usual among her contemporaries. Her priority at this stage was to see her young family through their early years first, a decision which turned out to be both wise and lucky. By the time she felt ready for serious art study it had become possible to apply for a place on the three-year BA(Hons) degree course at Suffolk College; she was accepted in 1993.

While on the degree course she was able to take part in the Annual Drawing Exhibitions in Suffolk College’s excellent Forefront Gallery. A piece of good fortune at this time was having the legendary Ken Back as her personal mentor. Ken took early retirement in 1995 in order to look after his wife, who was seriously ill, but he was able to continue his tutorials, working from home. Delia attended until Ken’s own health declined; sadly, he died in 2002.

I was privileged to work with Ken some twenty years earlier, when we were the two first year group tutors at the School of Art in Ipswich. At a time when art schools were beginning to ditch traditional skills in favour of everything needing to be experimental and ‘edgy’, Ken soldiered on with his huge home-made charts showing the principles of parallel and oblique perspective, ellipses and the geometrical realities governing spatial awareness. Students would copy these and have their copies inspected and corrected before proceeding from one to the next. Only then could they put their new skills to practical use in the museum next door.

After several years of this thorough style of tuition Delia felt prepared to embark seriously on her own exhibiting life. Starting from Millennium Year she has had twenty solo shows to date and has taken part in some seventy group exhibitions in the same period. Additionally, there were ‘Artist in Residence’ situations at Ipswich Transport Museum and Ancient House, Ipswich, and membership of Suffolk Open Studios for seven years. A particularly significant solo exhibition was Figures in the Landscape at Chappel Galleries in 2008. Delia has particularly happy memories of the times when she was able to use the South Lookout (one of the two observation towers on the Aldeburgh seafront) as a base from which to work and which became her temporary studio for a few years.

During this time Delia had begun to show her work in London. The best route for a representational artist seemed to be to submit paintings to the open exhibitions of the old-established bodies (some of which had royal patronage) which held their shows at the Mall Galleries. She sent work to the New English Art Club (established in 1886) and the much more recently established Discerning Eye, (prize winner 2015) and had, with only isolated gaps, annual acceptances at both from 2006 to date, as well as acceptances at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2013 and 2016.

This new 2018 Chappel Galleries show is eagerly awaited.

Richard Scott 2018
Artist and author including ‘Artists in Walberswick – East Anglian Interludes 1880-2000’. Published 2002.

By the Artist:

I have always worked directly from the subject with my oil paints and all of the smaller works in this exhibition are produced in this way, the larger works are painted in my studio at home from these smaller paintings and from sketchbook work. I look and look for ages before deciding what is to be painted and I tend to abstract whilst in front of the subject, simplifying what is there and eliminating unnecessary detail. This is then developed further in the larger works using different compositions, for instance selecting a large square canvas to work on from the original rectangular small image, or a composite of maybe two paintings, using figures from one small painting and the landscape from another, often giving the figures more space, playing around with these ideas..... And always with Ken over my shoulder telling me to listen to my inner feelings about it and not to do too much thinking....a few of his favourite guidelines were: use your gut instinct, go for a strong composition, work directly from the subject, go for mood, remain true to yourself. Avoid the easy solution, slick brushwork, repeating yourself....and I could go on!

I use my car as a travelling studio painting from within it whilst being protected from the elements and prying eyes! I also paint on holiday, Craig and I tour with our caravan around Europe and some of the paintings in this exhibition were painted on location in Bavaria and France, I always make sure we have a campsite with wonderful views.  I also own a beach hut at Brackenbury Cliffs in Felixstowe which I love and I have been painting from there for the last couple of years.

I love the sea, the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, and the colours and mood the sea presents in all weathers, calm like a mill pond one day and wild and romantic the next. I seem to have a relationship with the sea which is very energizing and therapeutic; a figure or two painted in front of the sea reflects this and has become endlessly fascinating as subject matter for my painting.

DELIA TOURNAY-GODFREY CV