Distant Visions

“‘See ever so far, there is limitless space outside of that, Count ever so mych, there is limitless time around that.’

“When Walt Whitman wrote this in 1855, he clearly articulated the sense of distance – of the infinite – so strongly felt in what was then the ‘New World’. It is this ‘New World’ aesthetic, or sensibility – where distance, both temporal and spatial, literal and symbolic, attains not only formal but thematic significance – that informs the work of Peter Waddell. In the series of paintings titled Distant Visions, it is distance itself, in all its forms, that constitutes the shadow subject-matter – while architecture, as both emblematic and antithetical reaction to this sense of distance, of the infinite, is thrown into star relief by contrast.

“Throughout Distant Visions Waddell emphasizes the creative act, the visionary impulse, insofar as it is reflected in the Classical architecture of Washington.”

-Bede Scott, Art Historian

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