Traces: Barbara Macfarlane

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery is delighted to present Traces, an exhibition of new works by British artist Barbara Macfarlane.

Comprising monumental oil paintings alongside intimate works on paper, the exhibition captures the distinctive landscape of the French region of Les Baronnies through Macfarlane's unique approach to mark-making. It also presents her iconic grid-like city paintings, revealing the breadth of her practice, from the rugged, olive-clad hills of south-eastern France to the intricate matrix of London.

Situated in the South of France, Les Baronnies defies the familiar image of neighbouring regions such as Aix-en-Provence or Arles, immortalised by painters including Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. Macfarlane's France is altogether different: dramatic, coarse and untamed. Mountain ridges plunge into deep valleys, while rocky outcrops and sun-baked earth define a landscape beyond Cézanne's Mount Saint-Victoire. It is this raw terrain that has become the focus of her new series.

For Macfarlane, Les Baronnies is a place of retreat. She has returned here for decades with family and friends, developing an intimate understanding of its changing terrain. This year, she spent an extended period in the region with the intention of observing and recording the landscape with greater focus than ever before. The works in this exhibition are the result of that sustained engagement, presenting a monumental yet deeply personal vision of Les Baronnies, shaped by memories of a place explored with those closest to her.

Many of the works are made on Khadi paper, produced by Khadi Papers, the company Macfarlane co-founded, which specialises in exceptional handmade artists' papers from India, Nepal and Bhutan. In 1994, Khadi Papers established its own handmade paper mill in Karnataka, South India, enabling the production of its distinctive cotton papers from recycled T-shirt offcuts. The long cotton fibres create an exceptionally strong paper, while the richly textured surface of each handmade sheet is integral to Macfarlane's process, contributing to the layered, tactile quality of her compositions. Working with watercolour, oil paint, ink and gestural, calligraphic mark-making, Macfarlane responds directly to the paper's materiality. The resulting works are both tactile and pictorial, intimate in their detail yet expansive. Through this process, she explores the landscape's contours, boundaries, character and history.

Hovering at the threshold of abstraction, Traces invites viewers to complete the landscape through their own imagination. Macfarlane's expressive painterly language, defined by abbreviated forms, layered surfaces and dynamic brushwork, conjures the shifting relationships between land, sky and water, capturing both the physical landscape and its emotional resonance.