Celia Lendis Galleries, High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh from February 1

Richard Kenton Webb follows in the tradition of English Romantic landscape painters but it is difficult, at first, to see this. His large semi-figurative paintings are drenched in intense and pure colour. Their lyrical and rhythmic forms (often reminiscent of concept drawings for machines that speak more of human frailty than mechanical precision), seem to reference 1950s modernism rather than the spiritual landscapes of 19th century British painters. However, in the same way that those painters validated strong emotion and intuition as an authentic and desirable source of aesthetic experience, so Richard takes his starting point as his personal response to a particular landscape and moment in time. He opens himself up to the experience of place and his multi-sensory awareness of himself within or as part of his surroundings. This private immersion allows for an input of thoughts and emotions that the artist pursues, almost obsessively, using a language of colour and form to create paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings that induce a kind of transformational aesthetic experience in the viewer.

This solo exhibition – at the gallery from Saturday, February 1 to Wednesday, March 5 – highlights the depth, breadth and commitment of Richard Kenton Webb’s artistic practice and proves his long-term value and importance as a serious artist involved in a lifelong project of important aesthetic worth.

Richard has lived and painted in an old coach house near Cirencester for the past 25 years. He is an artist and also a teacher: a senior lecturer in drawing and applied arts at the University of West England and in the past taught at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Prince of Wales Drawing School in London.