My mother, Marie Goodenough, who has died aged 90, was a prolific painter but primarily considered herself a sculptor, mainly working in wood but also using papier-mache, fibreglass and metal. She had an original and humorous outlook; the sculpture Boris Godunov, purchased by the Andrew Duncan Clinic in Edinburgh, was a play on words, and Newspaperman, made from copies of the Scotsman, was a tribute to the art critic Edward Gage and exhibited in the Royal Glasgow Institute.
Born in York, Marie was the only child of Selina (nee Jenkins) and George Goodenough, a locomotive guard. She spoke of a largely lonely childhood where she often sat on the stairs reading, thereby developing a vivid imagination and a love of literature. She learned to be hard-working and disciplined, was outspoken but always sociable and interested in people, and had a strong sense of social justice, particularly concerning children.
Bus Stop, Warkworth, by Marie Goodenough
Marie attended Mill Mount grammar school, and after becoming interested in drawing she studied at Edinburgh College of Art, where she found her vocation. She was awarded numerous prizes, culminating in a major postgraduate travel award in 1958, which enabled her to travel around Greece for a year with her new husband, Bert Wraith, whom she had met when they both worked as students at the Post Office in York at Christmas. They returned to the UK and moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Bert, a metallurgist, set up a research unit at the university. After teaching at Bishop Auckland College and Newcastle Polytechnic in the late 1950s, Marie left work to look after her children.
Birds of Prey (Henry VI), by Marie Goodenough
She fostered children briefly in the late 60s, and in 1972 we moved to a more rural setting in Warkworth, Northumberland, where her artistic work focused on a range of subjects including natural forms, horses and Shakespeare. Voluntary work and community projects ensued, among them a Christmas Eve nativity show with 12 lifesize puppets, and a sculpture of escaped sheep queueing at a village bus stop.
Marie exhibited widely, including at the Royal Scottish Academy and the John Whibley Gallery, London. The accolades continued, including the RSA Ottilie Helen Wallace prize, and she joined a number of societies including the Scottish Society of Women Artists and the Society of Botanical Artists. In 1989 she was invited to exhibit in Voerde, West Germany, and marked the millennium with sculpture and book projects involving local schoolchildren.
Marie was an accomplished plantswoman and excellent cook, with interests including music, history and film. She and Bert moved to Exeter in 2007 to live near my sister, Louise. Marie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2013 and Bert died in 2025 from Parkinson’s. They were a devoted couple and remained at home together until their deaths.
Marie is survived by her daughters, Louise and me, and her grandchildren, Kristen, Logan, Nathaniel and Sadie.