-
Overview
"Whenever I am taken by a theme, I seem to have to start all over and invent my own pictorial structure"
Kenneth Webb is widely regarded as one of the preeminent landscape painters of the past century. Over the course of a distinguished career spanning more than seventy years, Webb’s artistic practice has undergone several important stylistic and thematic evolutions. His work remains characterised by a continual spirit of innovation and a deeply personal engagement with the natural world.
At the heart of Webb’s oeuvre lies a desire to convey his own emotional and sensory response to the landscape. His paintings are not simply representations of place but are explorations of atmosphere, memory, and mood. Working in a bold, expressive manner, Webb has long prioritised colour as a central vehicle of meaning. Since his formative years in art school, he has embraced a highly individual palette, arriving at a visual language that is both luminous and immersive.
Webb’s achievements have been recognised through exhibitions at many leading institutions, including the Royal Academy in London. In 1957, he founded the Irish School of Landscape Painting and has since lectured at such esteemed venues as the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery, London. Today, Webb’s paintings are held in numerous international collections and are highly sought after by collectors around the world. Since 2010, Gladwell & Patterson have proudly represented Kenneth, during which time his monumental canvases have garnered acclaim among collectors in the United Kingdom, the United States, China and beyond.
-
Works for sale
Kenneth Webb
Summer AdagioOil on Canvas61 x 91 cms / 24 x 35¾ inchesSigned 'Webb' (lower right)Description
In recent years Kenneth has revisited one of the most emotionally resonant subjects of his long career: the reflection of sky and trees in still water. Painted since his return to Devon, and part of his ongoing Lyrical Series, this radiant composition brings together elements from Kenneth’s earlier inspirations, his wild garden in Ballinaboy, the bog pools of Connemara, and the shadowy forests of his childhood in Gloucestershire, and distils them into a vision of profound harmony. The surface of the painting pulses with colour. Bold strokes of yellow and gold sweep forward like a musical phrase, dissolving into a glassy pool that captures the cool blues of the sky and the deep, opaque greens of the distant woodland. The scene is rooted in observation, yet heightened through memory and imagination. Kenneth invites us to pause and dwell in this suspended moment - a summer’s breath slowed to the rhythm of an adagio. The waterlily forms, a recurring motif since the early days of the Ballinaboy garden, are here less botanical and more gestural. Their presence, glowing at the edge of abstraction, guides the viewer’s eye into the reflective depths of the scene. Unlike earlier works where dense tree forms blocked the sky, here
the horizon opens up, hinting at stillness, freedom and inner space. Yet the energy remains in the texture, the dancing edges, the flickering interplay of shadow and sun.
Contact FormSend me more information on Kenneth Webb