K. Imperial Fine Art is pleased to present Between Echoes, a series of ethereal oil paintings by England-based artist Richard Whadcock. This show features Whadcock’s newest iterations on his trademark atmospheric landscapes: British wilds so shrouded in fog that they teeter on abstraction. His compositions are vast and enveloping, revealing their depths in the manner of a vista emerging out of a haze. The show will be on view from January 14th to February 22nd, 2025. The gallery welcomes the public to the opening reception on Saturday, January 18th, from 3-5 p.m.
Whadcock’s style is instantly recognizable by its impossibly soft brushwork and supple marks motivated by the desire to strip compositions down to their barest lines and hues. The terrains in his works fade in or out of existence, emerging in a dewy morning dawn or being washed away by dusk. The floating softness is engulfing, drawing one into an unspecified moment in an indeterminate world, where topographic features gradually make themselves known with time. In Whadcock’s words, “I don’t think they are immediate paintings. The images enveloped in light and air reveal themselves the more you stand in front of them, if you are willing to let them, in the same way that a real landscape is taken in as you walk through it.” The ambiguity of the images force the attention of the viewer, and in order to make sense of this environment, they are drawn into it. In this way, the composition creates space for meditation and contemplation.
Whadcock lives next to the South Downs, a rolling range of chalk hills near Brighton. This environment is the setting for his inspiration. Whadcock takes long walks along the ridge of the Downs, where the coastal weather fronts are constantly shaping the region. A mist-shrouded hillside will suddenly illuminate as a ray of sunlight stabs through the haze, darken as it is swallowed up in shadow, and erupt in splotches of mud and puddles as rain passes through. In the midst of the amorphous fog–with the ground undulating into the distance and landmarks coming in and out of view–features can be difficult to determine, and scale becomes ambiguous. With detail and complexity obfuscated, what remains is a broad sense of light, space, and open air.
These conditions–the forms and shapes of nature that are constantly moving and shifting–are the primary informants of Whadcock’s work. He documents the Downs in sketches and photographs which serve less as references than as starting points to paintings that ultimately take on worlds of their own. Marks and lines, originally inspired by mist and shadows in the Downs, morph as he adds layers to the canvas, and the composition evolves. The result is a nebulous, indistinct composition, neither a true-to-life landscape nor a fully imagined abstract piece, but rather an intuitive interpretation of a stroll through the fog-obscured chalklands.
Between Echoes will be on display from January 14th to February 22nd, 2025. The gallery is by appointment only. Please contact the gallery at kimperialfineart@me.com or 415.277.7230 for inquiries or to make an appointment.
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