My next show, Passion Drawings & English Iconoclasm, will open at Benjamin Rhodes Arts in London on Thursday 30th April. I hope this will open up a new conversation.
Passion
In 2020, within three months, I had left my full-time teaching post of 15 years, started a new role and moved to Devon. Everything happened so quickly. On top of this, we were all going through COVID. I found myself alone in a hut in the woods by the sea, teaching online, away from my family.
Background
I had just completed my Conversation with Milton’s Paradise Lost when the second COVID lockdown came. I started to reflect on my professional circumstances of the last 15 years. I needed to make sense of what I had been through.
Grief came upon me. I reached out to God and felt a deep sense of love. I started to draw.
This is the result: a cycle of drawings inspired by the Passion of Christ. These were deeply personal and I never expected to show them.
Healing
For me, living in the hut, exhausted, broken and alone in the lockdown, I needed to make this work – for my wellbeing. This was my song of companionship, love and survival. Knowing I was hoisting a particular flag, I thought, I don’t care – my relationship with my God is bigger than success, the art world, academia and, in fact, everything. By outscaping this experience and belief, I felt comfort, healing and restoration. This is how I could understand my own passion, in the Passion.
Studio visit
In 2023, I had a studio visit from Benjamin Rhodes. We started to look through my plan chest and I pulled out these drawings. Back in the 1990s, I had felt discriminated against as a ‘Christian artist’. When the art critic Peter Fuller died, I was alone, without an advocate. I felt like an outsider.
Outsiders
As a result, this book with my 24 drawings, Passion, is dedicated to all outsiders.
Turning point
Originally, I had no intention of revealing these drawings to the outside world – they were and are my heart. Why reveal something so precious? But Benjamin was overcome. He responded with such respectful, beautiful comments. This was the turning point: Benjamin was determined to show them.
Universal message
Benjamin was responding to the universal message revealed in the work. He wanted others to see them. I respect him and trust him. I realise that now is the right time.
Iconoclasm
Last year, I started to explore the pockets of academic disdain for painting. Since the 1990s, we have seen a shift towards concept-driven, word-based fine art study and research rather than practice-based learning with paintings, drawings and prints as the primary outcomes. For five years, I had the joy of teaching the practice of colour in worldclass studios at Arts University Plymouth. I see now that this is a rare and precious jewel within academia. I’m honoured to remain at the university as Visiting Professor.
For my next blog, I want to talk about why I have been studying English iconoclasm. My new work is a response to the northern European history of destroying the embodied arts, including painting, whilst promoting a word-based culture. With the rise of AI, we need to fight hard for survival of all embodied arts.
Exhibition
Passion Drawings & English Iconoclasm opens at Benjamin Rhodes Arts, London, on Thursday 30th April and runs until Saturday 27th June 2026.
Publication
Passion, Richard Kenton Webb, will be published by Benjamin Rhodes as a beautifully bound book on 30th April.
Foreword by Dr Richard Davey
Essay by Professor Hugh Adlington
Retail price £30.
ISBN 978 1 9194264 0 2
Advance information here.
