These paintings were commissioned in 2021 by the Jewish Studies Department at Manchester University for their project ‘50 Jewish Objects’.
http://www.manchesterjewishstudies.org/50-jewish-objects New Blog
The department has been working with Universities across the North of England and Scotland, studying particular examples of mostly ancient and written items saved and stored as historical evidence.
Each painting describes a table top, a still life drawing made at the library. The historic objects I chose to research and paint from were;
The ‘Butterfly’ fragment handwritten by Maimonides.
A Karaite Hebrew Bible
2CE and earliest known fragment of St. Johns gospel
Each painting is 118x80 cms
oil paint and mixed media on polyester tablecloth
2020
Lockdown projects
WhatsApp self portrait group
I suggested to a few friends and family at the start of lockdown that we send each other self portraits in order to keep in touch during the pandemic. This snowballed into a group of 23 who have produced close to 200 self portraits so far.
Our Self Portrait WhatsApp group became a hugely positive way to share the experience of isolating as well as giving a new focus for us at a time when we couldn’t do the things we’re accustomed to. From professional artists, to the less experienced, we could all say ‘here I am and I’m thinking of you’ through ART.
Here are some examples from Chicago, New York, Bologna, Edinburgh, West Glamorgan, London, Marseille, Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Connecticut, and New Mexico, using ink, charcoal, crayon, digital, fungus, watercolour and glass.
SOAP
Hand washing has become a major preoccupation at this time for us all. In response to this I have been painting a series of miniature gouache paintings focusing on where we wash. Painted onto khadi paper from a small sketchbook bought at the RA and dismantled for use in March they are all 13 x 15 cms.
They are for sale through the brilliant Instagram scheme #artistssupportpledge, started by @matthewburrowsstudio which encourages sales of up to £200. Once an artist has sold £1000 of work that artist buys a piece by another artist.
The whole project has become an absorbing reflection of current times.
SELF PORTRAITS
Away from the studio and without oil paint to continue ongoing projects, my research has taken me to where I’ve always avoided….
Who wants to study their ageing face?
Looking within at the emotions and history we can all find inside, has been a far better experience than I’d anticipated.
Here are a few examples
2019
Once Upon A
Solo exhibition of new work based on collection of objects and plants that carry particular meanings for the owners. Some things belonging to Juliet while others belong to neighbours and friends. What stories and memories are invested in objects that you keep?
Whitefriars Gallery, London
IG @julietgoodden
2019 Selected for 2019 RA summer exhibition by Jock Macfayden and his team. My painting ‘23 souvenirs’ is number 216 in room III.
2018-19 Panel member for Hostry Gallery, Norwich Cathedral
Following the successful exhibition It’s Better When We Listen, I’ve been honoured by the invitation to join the selection panel for the Hostry Selection
2018 In Good Faith at St Mary Abbot’s church was the second year of exhibiting during interfaith week. Thank you to everyone who made it possible and who came. Newest work included paintings on Tibetan prayer flags.
2018 It's Better When We Listen, is an exciting solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints at The Hostry, Norwich Cathedral. Lots of new paintings about empathy for diverse religions through still lives of religious souvenirs.
Juliet Goodden is a painter who is exploring the sacred landscape of the UK. Her ambition is to familiarise herself and others with contemporary religious life.
Not the lofty, distant, even divisive worlds of the past, but the people and ideas that rub shoulders in the high streets of Harrow, Birmingham, Derby . . . and now Norwich.Akin to an anthropologist she works in situ - recording what she sees, what is going on inside a mosque, a temple or a church - sitting at the back, or in the first pew, drawing board on lap. Outdoors she can paint from the shelter of her car - whose interior and mirrors play their part in her compositions. Goodden emphatically draws and paints from life.As an artist she processes the experience into visual form, sometimes merging the view, so that the exterior of a church from one day’s painting in Derby, will be joined by reflections of worshippers leaving their mosque, on another, in the car’s rearview mirror. Her painting Kedleston Road from a Derby series, won a place at the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize 2016 in Liverpool. In her latest show - It’s Better When We Listen - at Norwich Cathedral Hostry, Goodden’s paintings and drawings take a new turn, though still in the same territory.This body of work focuses on the personal, domestic scale of religious objects, from the celebrated and iconic to the cheap, almost tacky souvenirs of different faiths that can equally connect and return the owner to a spiritual step, a pilgrimage, a special service, a moment of truth; or simply a happy time with family which takes on more significance later.The paintings, in oil on sari fabric that Goodden finds in charity shops, place small religious sculptures and ritual paraphernalia in surprising conversation with each other. Norwich Cathedral also appears in several of the works, like a dream arising from a brilliant field of green silk sari, or tie-dyed purple, in the company of a Muslim incantation, Hanukkah candles or a sacred heart necklace.Goodden is also showing her collection of religious souvenirs, from which the paintings were created. There are small stone cows from India, a statue of Buddha from the Norwich Buddhist Centre, a snow globe of Norwich Cathedral and Native American Kachina dolls, among others.
The exhibition's title, Goodden says, occurred to her after attending services in many different places of worship and hearing extremely similar prayers and advice. “Rather than make assumptions about each other, we gain a better understanding when we listen to each other.”
2017 Housewarming is the first exhibition at new Acava studios in the old Winsor and Newton building in Harrow and Wealdstone. 2017 showing 12 paintings of diverse prayer spaces in Derby. Interfaith Week at the beautiful Derby Multi Faith Centre at Derby University
The Talking Lamp curated by Laurence Owen I have two paintings in this exciting exhibition, at Kennington Residency, London
Laurence Owen
Kate Lyddon
Laura Bygrave
Sebastian Burger
Ben Jamie
Dominic Musa
Alex Crocker
Thom Trojanowski-Hobson 
