Michael Godfrey is a painter based in the D.C. area who at one point became fascinated with the landscape and mountains of the western U.S.
His range of subject matter includes both the eastern and western mountains, their related fields and countryside, and particularly their creeks and streams. These he renders with great attention to the character of reflections, the subtle colors of rocks, both dry and submerged, and the shimmer of sunlight across gently rippled flowing water.
In all of his work, it’s the play of light that really is his subject, dappled in woods, carving the forms of mountains or sea cliffs, and arrayed across fields and hills in bands of contrasting values. Alternately, Godfrey explores the subtle characteristics of muted, softer light in mist, haze and atmospheric distance.
Unfortunately, Godfrey’s website does little to display his work — it effectively doesn’t, leaving you to click offsite to the galleries in which he is represented, or his Facebook page, which appears to have taken the place of his largely abandoned blog. (I think artists who concentrate their attention on Facebook buy into the false image Facebook likes to project that “everyone” is on Facebook, and forget that it is essentially a walled garden, largely inaccessible to those who have chosen not to have an account.)
You can find a range of images of Godfrey’s work in the list of galleries I’ve linked below. Most are on the frustratingly small side. The Saks Galleries in Denver have the largest images I could find.
There is also an article from 2010, with an online gallery of images, on Southwest Art.
