Downland Memories

Richard Whadcock
Downland Memories
Original Landscape Painting
Oil Paint on Panel
Panel Size: H 25cm x W 25cm
Sold Framed
Please note that in situ images are purely an indication of how a piece may look.

Downland Memories is a contemporary landscape painting by Richard Whadcock. The calming tones blend together to create a mesmerising landscape.

Wychwood Art Solo Exhibition 2016

Firstly, Id like to thank Deborah Allan for giving me the opportunity to exhibit at Wychwood Art. Most of my exhibitions have been in London so it is interesting to get the work seen somewhere else. I know the internet does its job very effectively in spreading the word about gallery shows but I think it is still most important to get the work directly in front of the audience and bring it to a new audience as much as possible. A screen, no matter how good, can only impart a limited amount of information. I know from experience where someone has seen an artist work online, not been inspired by it, but then had a complete change of heart when they were stood in front of an actual piece. Even to the point of buying a couple.

Between myself and Deborah we decided to aim for a show which would centre mainly around smaller works. The biggest here is 100cm x 100cm (“Through Mists of Love”) and the smallest 25cm x 25cm (“Downland Memories”). Usually most of the works start at about 100x100cm and above but smaller works are always present in the studio and part of the working process. The majority here are on panel as this has become the preferred surface. They are shown along side a new set of pastels which is a new medium for me but one which I have a great affinity with.

I studied on a general fine art course at Bristol Art College from 86-89. This gave me a grounding in painting and printmaking. At this point it was printmaking that was at the fore. This lead me to undertake a Masters Degree in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art from 89-91 working in intaglio and more and more in lithography. The direct nature of lithography also started to draw me back to painting as well. Printmaking involves a process which gives a working structure. To some degree this has found its way into my approach to painting from the preparation of a painting surface, hand wiping etching plates to hand wiping paintings. The parring down of anything that is insignificant to the bare essentials for the image to work. Early influences, and these influences have stayed with me until present day, are artist such as Cy Twombly, Robert Motherwell, Milton Avery to Vermeer, Turner and Rembrandt. Elements of all have been introduced into my work. With the Rembrandt’s it was the backgrounds allowing the paintings to emerge from dark to light. Turners handling of atmosphere which lived in the paintings and the gestural from Twombly and Motherwell.

So where do the paintings come from? Their source material is predominantly from around the South Downs. My studio is based in Hove and it takes less then thirty minutes to be out and walking along the South Downs Way which stretches all the way from Winchester in the West to Eastbourne in the East, tracing a path just in from the south coast. It isn’t that its a craggy dramatic landscape, more undulating, but it does rise to peaks such as Chanctonbury Ring, Devils Dyke and Ditchling Beacon all of which have drawn me back time after time.

What makes the landscape draw me back? To me it is the way it can morph in to a different state with in minutes. As it follows the coast so closely it can be clear one minute and then capitulate to a weather front that sweeps in from the sea and rapidly change the look and feel of the landscape. Known geographical detail can be expunged by a coastal mist, smudged away by a downpour or bleached out by intense low morning or evening sun. It is these transitions from one state to another that the paintings are dealing with, small periods of time, not really a singular moment as such. They are also not meant to be of a particular place, hence the rarity with which they are titled with a geographical name. This is in some way to stop the name already defining a picture in the viewer’s mind. I aim for them to evoke a place, perhaps in your memories of somewhere you have been to. To describe a feeling, atmosphere during a passage of time. The viewer is bringing something to the painting as well, the painting draws it out of you only to deliver you back through the layers of light and depth.

The majority of the works start from sketches, photographs or just memories of a walk. All are just reference points to initially put something down on canvas, panel or paper. However before any of this starts the painting surface has to be right. I spent far too long trying to paint on a standard painting canvas. I now prime any surface many times to build up layers of primer that hide canvas weave and produce a substantial surface that will take hold of the marks I make but allow the free movement of paint when necessary. I think I can now trace this back to the connection with the surface that one draws on with lithography stones and plates. While some paintings start off from a traditional white surface many are now coloured;perhaps an orange, a deeper mars orange or a raw umber wash. Layers are built up of thin glazes of a usually limited palette. The primed base colours are then allowed to influence the top glazes or are completely obliterated only to be revealed again as layers are then sanded back or drawn through whilst still wet. At some point the painting process inevitably takes over and starts to generate the paintings subsequent direction. Original elements can then be re introduced to the work to give a piece the solid foundation it needs to hold together. Each time a painting is worked on the whole surface is worked on with some areas getting more significant changes and others simply refined.

As to knowing when a painting is finished, this is always a tricky one. For me the painting has to work as a painting in its own right. If I am happy to come into the studio and look at a work then I know something is going right. If a painting doesn’t make me want to look at every aspect of it then there is some way to go.

Size: H:25 cm x W:25 cm

Richard Whadcock is currently showing in our art gallery original paintings and limited edition prints. Richard is also showing at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition 2015. Discover new paintings by artist Richard Whadcock for sale with Wychwood Art Gallery online and in our art gallery in Oxfordshire. Richard Whadcock is a contemporary artist specialising in atmospheric landscape paintings. His contemporary landscape paintings explore the South Downs and East Sussex coast. Trying to capture its ever changing dramatic atmosphere from silent stillness to squally days. The South Downs are only a starting point as the paintings themselves eventually take over and follow their own path creating their unique surface landscape. Richard studied at Fine Art at Bristol Polytechnic from 1986-89 where the work crossed between painting and printmaking. He then went onto study for his MA at the Royal College of Art specialising in printmaking. He utilised etching but mainly lithography due to its closeness to painting. Along side these he would also paint with all these disciplines feeding each other and expanding ideas. After leaving college Richard was awarded a residency at the Lowick House Print Workshop in Cumbria and more recently, 2014, he was also awarded a two week residency at Cill Rialaig artists village in Kerry, Ireland. His studio has been part of the Phoenix Arts studios in Brighton for the last 15yrs. It is one of the largest artist lead organisations remaining. The work crosses between small works on paper to large scale oils on canvas up to 200cm x 200cm. His work has been collected nationally and internationally. For any enquiries about Richard's paintings or limited edition prints for sale please email deborah@wychwoodart.com, or call 07799 535765.