Kate Tiernan reviews the exhibition David Whitaker Retrospective Part II: Waters of the Nile at Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, on view through August 2013.

Tiernan writes: "'Collecting' atmospheric conditions and natural phenomenon that he had witnessed was integral when conceiving a work. Whitaker described this as a highly conceptual process, with the hope of capturing optimism. Fascinated by a real and multiple perspective, the influence of both Pablo Picasso and Peter Lanyon are evident in Whitaker’s output: conceptual cubism – conceiving works with pauses to consider the act of painting, the delineation of the horizontal and vertical line… Each mark carries intentionality, gestures to demarcate and sometimes devour the surface underneath as Gerhard Richter did, dragging colour across the whole canvas."