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.
