OXFORD’S Lady Mayoress Muriel Goddard is creating a novel keepsake of her husband’s time in office – sketchbooks filled with portraits she draws at official engagements.

Mrs Goddard, of Blandford Avenue, Oxford, has captured dinner parties, concerts, African dancers and her city councillor husband John Goddard through his year as Oxford’s civic head.

She said: “John and I are attending so many fabulous events, that I started early on to sketch people.

“Now, halfway through his term of office, I am already on my fourth notebook.”

Mrs Goddard, a mother-of-two and grandmother-of-six, is a former art teacher who runs adult still-life classes from her home.

She said: “I have been an artist all my life so I watch people closely and love to capture their likeness.

“I don’t make it obvious that I am drawing people.

“Some people do not realise what I am doing and some people might not like to be drawn, of course, although most who have looked at the pictures, have liked them very much.

“My particular favourites are those I drew recently at a concert at the Russian Orthodox Church. The costumes were fabulous.”

Mrs Goddard also sketched visitors and attractions at St Giles Fair, including the Lord Mayor riding on the galloping horses carousel.

She added: “We also went to see the animals blessed at Stadhampton Animal Sanctuary and I drew lots of animals.

“Of course some engagements are easier to sketch at than others – drawing an orchestra at a concert, for example, is easy.

“But it would be very difficult to sketch people at dinner parties and garden parties.

“I recently met Valerie Taylor, who runs a hospital for paralysed people in Bangladesh, which is John’s favourite charity.

“I drew several portraits of her and she was very pleased with them. Some people I have drawn have asked me for photocopies and I am happy to do that.”

Mrs Goddard said she could not predict how many sketchbooks she would fill before her husband’s term of office ends in May.

She added: “I am just hoping they will be a lovely reminder of all the lovely things we saw and people we met during this time.

“They will also be something special to show our grandchildren when they are older.”