Sidney Godwin has taught in the art department at Brookdale Community College for 35 years. The retiring professor was awarded a transitional sabbatical for the fall 2011-spring 2012 academic year, ending his teaching career and sparking a return to his life as a full-time landscape painter.
The exhibition, on view at the CVA Gallery, Lincroft, through Oct. 5, marks the end of his sabbatical and includes a dozen new paintings, large and small. There are also three or four older works that mark the start of his transition.
“The older works will tie in to what I did last year,” he said. “They are still local scenes.” To see more of Godwin’s paintings, visit http://sidneygodwin.artspan.com.
While on sabbatical, Godwin was able to indulge in his study of landscape paintings and painters, and fully address his own work.
“I’ve been reconsidering the landscape — how I approach it. I have a micro-view and a macro-view. I reflect on other artists and look back on all of the landscape painting of the past, and my painting is still changing.”
Godwin has been studying the work of Edward Hopper, Neil Welliver and Fairfield Porter, as well as the work of the American Impressionists and Tonalists.
“I just got a new book — a great big book called ‘Tonalism in America.’ That stuff knocks me on my butt when I look at it,” he said. “It’s a pretty rich soup. There’s a lot in it, you get a lot out of it; it nourishes you.”
The exhibition title, “Just Off the Road,” refers to the content of his work, and helps establish the tone of the show.
“The reason I use this title is that most of [the scenes] are local. They are all in Monmouth County, close to me. They are places I can pass by every day or go back to so I can see them often.”
By revisiting familiar places, Godwin experiences them under new atmospheric conditions, filled with fresh color combinations created through light and shadow.
“I’m kind of like Monet, I’m thinking. I do scenes repeatedly at different times of day, the same scene but on a different day,” he said. “The title of this show is like an old country saying, ‘It’s just ahead, just off the road.’ I bring it down to a personal level. This exhibition is my goodbye to Brookdale. Even though I’ll be close by, I will no longer be at the college.”
And Godwin will be around the corner, just off the road, immersed in his painting.