Land Marks: Barbara Macfarlane

Land Marks is a major exhibition of new work by the British landscape-painter, Barbara Macfarlane. It includes atmospheric plein air depictions of the French and English countryside, together with distinctive map-like representations of London, Paris and other great cities of the world, which approach the challenge of landscape from an aerial perspective, blending abstraction with the emotive use of colour. 

Uniting the twin strands of Macfarlane’s practice is a commitment to succinct and uninhibited mark-making. It imbues all her pictures with a compelling energy – and a unique voice.

‘My method of working has grown from the technique I first evolved painting in watercolour out in the countryside. I still draw with ink using a stick whether I am painting a landscape or a map. The same calligraphic marks are used to respond to a wild uninhabited place or to the manmade environments represented by the urban maps. I use oil paint in a similar way to watercolour. The marks are fast and immediate. The empty spaces are important; they make air and space allowing the marks to breathe.’

- Barbara Macfarlane

Macfarlane’s art captures the essence - and the drama - of the land, the contrasting elements of earth, sky and water, how they take the light, how they meet and merge.

Over the course of the last twenty years Macfarlane has achieved an international reputation, exhibiting widely in Europe, North America, and Asia. She has shown regularly at the Royal Academy in London, and recently collaborated with the award-winning American designer, Billy Reid, holding an acclaimed exhibition in his New York flagship store.