Godfrey was born in London in 1939. She studied Fine Art at King’s College, Newcastle. She acknowledges the influence of Victor Pasmore on the abstraction of space and shape in her own work. She began using wood, and casts of fibre glass and concrete in the early work, progressing to stone carving and more recently stainless steel, aluminium and bronze.
She has carved altars (her first commission was for St Albans after graduating) one of which can be seen in the Catholic Church of the Assumption in Mulberry Green. Her carved Oak Column is at Nortel Technology. There are two works in the grounds of the Gibberd Garden.
In 2015 she exhibited together with artist Alan Burgess in the Gibberd Gallery summer show entitled Wood, Stone, Steel and Paint. There were photographs of her many commissions and design drawings.
She is a member of the Harlow Art Trust and lives and works in Roydon, Essex.
Works
Grecian Urn: Two Vertical Forms
Portland Stone
2000
ht 150 cm
Keats House Health Centre
The Health Centre is named after the poet John Keats, who trained as a doctor. His poem Ode to a Grecian Urn inspired this work and the text from two of his other poems are carved on the face of each form to be viewed from the two sides of the surgeries in the atrium.
We are the music makers
Lime wood
2006
ht 133 cm
St John’s ARC
Commissioned by Harlow Chorus and St John’s ARC the words are from an ode by O’Shaughnessy which were set to music by Elgar. The relief is wall mounted.
Flowing Onwards
Dunhouse Sandstone
2007
ht 121 cm x 150 cm
Parndon Lock Mill
Commissioned to be part of a series of sculptures which form the River Stort Sculpture Trail, (see Freeman and Murphy, Burrell, Mitcheson and Lysycia). The form of the sculpture is determined by the words of the text.
The Flame
Portland Stone
2008
ht 155 cm
Grounds of Harlow Museum (formerly the Cycle Museum)
Commissioned by Brays Grove School on its closure, and to mark 51 years of secondary education in Harlow. The words were chosen to celebrate the school’s ethos.
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