Robert Goodlett is one driver you don`t want to tailgate on the county roads of rural Florida. Sooner or later, he may slam on his brakes for no apparent reason and abruptly swerve his car into the weeds on the shoulder. Before you decide whether you`re watching a mad man or a heart attack in progress, he`ll jump out, clutching a camera and run off across a field. There`s a red sunset sky and golden light glancing through the branches of a live oak and burnishing the tips of tall grass. For a landscape artist, it`s that ephemeral combination of perfect light and perfect setting that begs to be captured, even if it means running through a cow pasture dressed in Sunday best. Goodlett has been painting since his mother gave him a Grumbacher set of oils at age nine. He is a Floridian artist in every possible way. Born and raised in south Florida, and a longtime resident of north-central Florida, his artistic interest in the unspoiled landscapes of this state was kindled early when he saw a large Albert Backus painting on the wall of a Coral Gables bank. Backus, of course, was the artist credited with inspiring the Highwaymen, that now-famous group of black artists centered around Fort Pierce on Florida`s Atlantic coast.
Although painting has always been a passion for Goodlett, for a long period it was no more than a sideline. He made his living as a builder and a professional musician. For years he played guitar with one or another of several different itinerant bands, but as life on the road made a normal family life increasingly difficult, he began to consider the market potential of his paintings as a source of income. At first, finding gallery representation was discouraging. His traditional approach was so uniformly unsuccessful - "Hello, my name is Robert Goodlett, I`m a Florida landscape artist" - that he could see the rejection coming before words ever reached the lips of a gallery owner. So he stopped entering galleries with a handshake and started walking in the door with a painting held in front of his chest, making a first impression with the art, not the artist. Suddenly "Hello, my name is ..." became unnecessary background noise because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
From that point, Goodlett started painting more and more, eventually giving up the life of a traveling musician to support himself full time as a painter. He built a home, complete with studio, in Rainbow Springs, near Dunnellon. He paints every day, all day, and often again in the evening, but loves every moment at his easel. Goodlett is entirely self-taught, having perfected his craft through observation, reading and trial-and-error. In the studio he experiments with color, composition and style, using different palettes or levels of abstraction. Although he works extensively from his vast personal collection of photos, these images are only a point of departure for his quintessential renderings of Old Florida - the coastal marshes, rivers and hammocks unspoiled by civilization. He might have to remove a car wash sitting behind a cluster of palms or ignore telephone lines crisscrossing a sunset to get there, but he gives artistic license free reign to trump mundane reality. Goodlett`s pragmatic side keeps an eye on his market. Most of his pieces are sized to fit in a suitcase, making them all the more sellable to the tourists and snowbirds who frequent Florida`s galleries. For art shows, he includes both smaller and larger pieces, so there is something for every budget. As a longtime member of the Cedar Keyhole Artist Co-op, he puts in his share of time behind the counter at the co-op`s gallery on 2nd Street in Cedar Key. He sets up a table easel next to the cash register and passes the time working on his next piece when he isn`t chatting with customers or ringing up a sale. This year he was honored when his work was chosen as the poster art for Cedar Key`s 2012 Old Florida Celebration of the Arts, an annual fine arts festival taking place this year on April 28-29. He will also have a booth at the festival, with many new pieces on display. For more information on this event, go to cedarkeyartsfestival.com. To see Robert Goodlett`s online gallery go to robertgoodlett.com. NOTE ** 2012 Official Posters & T-Shirts will go on pre-sale starting March 15th at the Women`s Club Luncheon and will also be available for sale at the Cedar Keyhole Co-op until festival weekend ** |
