175. ALL DRESSED UP FOR MAM AND DAD by PETER GOODFELLOW

c the artist

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY BP Portrait Award

Oil and collage on canvas 1480 x 1180 mm

This self-portrait is witty, warm and intriguing. Inside his coat are a variety of collaged portraits of his parents, recording their lives before and up to his birth. He writes 'I owe them so much and this way I carry them with me always.’

Yet of all the postures he could have chosen as a tribute, why this one? Does it remind you of the man-in-the-pub offering you  fake watches or jewellery? Or is he an old-fashioned stand up music hall comedian (flourishing at the time when his parents were young), who swishes his coat open like a curtain to reveal something unexpected to a delighted and surprised audience?  Or is it a moving piece of self disclosure - most of us keep our history tightly buttoned up inside us.
Peter Goodfellow has been described as one of Europe's leading illustrators, but since moving to Scotland has become a well known landscape painter as well. He describes how, after working so long to tightly prescribed briefs, he wants the paint surface 'to have a life of its own'. I would  call this a narrative painting, a genre I love because you have to  co operate with the artist to unpick the puzzle.

npg.org.uk
npg.org.uk/publications   if you want the catalogue
murals-portraits.co.uk     to see more of Beauvillain Scott's work