David Wightman: Imagining New Landscapes Through Colour

Some artists paint places they've visited. Others paint places they remember. David Wightman paints places that have never existed.

Working from his South London studio, Wightman creates vibrant, imaginary landscapes that blur the line between abstraction and traditional landscape painting. Towering mountains, impossibly coloured lakes and dramatic skies become believable worlds, built entirely from his imagination. The result is a body of work that feels at once familiar and otherworldly. Landscapes that seem as though they could exist somewhere, yet belong entirely to David's unique visual language.

Launching with Electric Gallery this week, the new collection brings together original works alongside a series of limited edition prints, offering collectors the opportunity to experience one of Britain's most distinctive contemporary landscape artists.

From Abstraction to Landscape

Although landscapes have become synonymous with David's work, they weren't where his artistic journey began.

His early practice focused on geometric abstraction, exploring simplified forms, texture and the emotional impact of colour. During this period, he developed the techniques that continue to define his work today, layering richly textured papers with intensely saturated acrylic colour to create remarkable depth and surface.

Everything changed after encountering the American Sublime exhibition while studying at the Royal College of Art. Seeing the monumental paintings of the Hudson River School opened up a new possibility: landscape painting didn't have to document reality - it could amplify it.

Rather than depicting existing locations, David began inventing entirely new ones.

Today, every composition starts with a simple drawing. That drawing may evolve into an original painting, a limited edition print, or both, creating a seamless relationship between the two mediums.

Places That Exist Only in the Imagination

One of the most compelling aspects of David's work is its ability to feel instantly recognisable without belonging anywhere specific.

Collectors often see echoes of Patagonia, the Alps, Iceland or South Africa within his paintings. Others recognise the atmosphere of places they've travelled to themselves. Yet none of these locations were ever referenced directly.

Instead, David constructs landscapes from memory, imagination and composition, allowing viewers to bring their own experiences to the work.

Rather than describing a place, his paintings evoke the feeling of discovering one.

That ambiguity is precisely what makes the work so engaging. Every viewer finds something different.

Colour Beyond Reality

Perhaps the most striking feature of David Wightman's work is its extraordinary use of colour.

Vivid magentas, luminous cyans, deep teals and glowing oranges transform mountains and lakes into dreamlike environments, while carefully balanced neutral tones allow every colour to resonate even more intensely.

It's an approach rooted in his background in abstraction, where colour was never constrained by reality.

By applying that same freedom to landscape painting, David has developed a style that feels simultaneously bold and harmonious - works that push beyond naturalistic representation while remaining completely convincing.

The landscapes may be imaginary, but the emotional response they create is entirely real.

A Dialogue Between Painting and Print

Printmaking plays an equally important role within David's practice.

Inspired in part by the compositional clarity and flattened perspective of Japanese woodblock prints, he revisits his original drawings to create editions that retain the same strength, precision and colour as the paintings themselves.

Rather than functioning as reproductions, the prints become an extension of the creative process, allowing the underlying drawing to take on a new life.

For collectors, this creates a rare opportunity to own work that shares the same artistic DNA as the originals.

A Natural Fit for Electric Gallery

David's work feels perfectly at home within the Electric Gallery collection.

His fearless approach to colour, distinctive visual language and contemporary take on landscape painting align naturally with the gallery's commitment to showcasing artists who challenge convention while creating work with lasting visual impact.

Launching on 9 July, the collection will include new original paintings alongside a range of limited edition prints in multiple sizes and colourways.

Whether you're discovering David Wightman for the first time or have followed his work for years, this new release offers a chance to step into landscapes unlike any you've seen before. Places imagined through colour, shape and texture, yet capable of feeling remarkably familiar.