Goodnough once explained about his method of painting that he loved to work freely and use slashing and active strokes of paint but that he also loved to work in an exacting manner. If you look at his work, this is evidenced in his broadly applied color fields and then the incredibly painstaking triangles of color that are achieved by taping off areas to create these exact shapes. Soaring I and II are beautiful examples of this and are the best of what he was doing in the 1990’s. These are also what he is best known for doing stylistically as no one else worked quite like it.
In these works, the viewer feels there is a sky and space in the works and that there is a lyrical sort of movement upward. Almost metaphorically perhaps to represent nature and or spirituality. They are exciting and dynamic compositions as you feel the upward movement, the soaring as the artist titles it. Goodnough did several compositions like this and with this color palette.
Also, important to note is the format of these paintings. The tall thin vertical nature and fact that there are two canvases in a paired manner suggest a commission. If it was not a commission than the artist himself was playing with the concept of two works actively complementing and speaking to each other.