The Strathearn Gallery
The Strathearn Gallery
17th September - 16th October 2022
One of Scotland's most gifted, striking and unique landscape artists working today, we are delighted to invite Beth back the gallery for her 5th solo show with us.
Few who have seen the work of Beth Robertson Fiddes would argue that in the world of noted Scottish landscape artists over the years, Beth deserves her place amongst the best with her paintings capturing the Scottish wilderness with a skill and talent few possess.
Bridging between realism and abstract painting, Beth eschews the more traditional bright and colourful vistas and while some compositions will depict broader landscapes and mountains, Beth's preference is to instead focus on specific elements and details within the environment. This narrowing in allows her to fully accentuate details within her subject matter - eroded rocks, rushing frenzied waves and sea foam, or stones glistening in a crystal clear rockpool.
Painting water is notoriously difficult yet Beth's exceptional talent and over 20 years of professional painting to hone her craft, means she has the ability to translate its movement, transparency and reflection flawlessly.
Beth is not short of inspiration, living and working in Sutherland where she spends her time fully immersed in the remote terrains of Highland Scotland, in all seasons, meticulously studying landscapes and seascapes to convey them like no other.
Using oil paint, inks, sometimes adding paper for texture, washing away paint and continually sanding back layers of work to rework and add to them, Beths paintings continuously evolve. Each a work of controlled experiment and accident in order to move technique forward - some works never are finished but the process is still valuable to Beth.
"I start with an idea of the direction I would like to go in but its the mistakes and surprises that drive on the painting process - choosing what to keep, what to discard and when to move on. I would never be able to sustain interest in a piece of work if I knew exactly what it would look like in the end. The painting is finished when I'm happy that Ive captured the feeling and memory of the initial point of inspiration or place. With tides, splashes, breaking waves and angry waters, I'm trying to catch a moment. To imagine that moment is all the time I have, a life in a millisecond, and to find, save and preserve forms and structures in the movement.'
Often choosing to paint on a larger scale, the finished paintings are powerful, breath-taking works that should be enjoyed in person to properly understand the formidable scale and depth achieved. And, as more and more art-collectors are switched on to Beth's work, although the locations she chooses to paint are often on the margins, her reputation certainly is not.
The Strathearn Gallery | 32 West High Street | Crieff | Perthshire | PH7 4DL
