Doubtfire Gallery

Beth Robertson Fiddes

Western Coastlines

Saturday 23 March – Saturday 27 April 2019

Western Coastlines - Breathtaking paintings of some of the most beautiful and

remote parts of Scotland’s Western Highland and Island shores. A solo

exhibition by one of our country’s most innovative landscape painters.

Beth captures Scotland’s western islands, coasts and mountains in a dynamic

and moving treatment of paint, texture and technique. Translucent waters ·

tides and streams · the light source on a distant hill · the richness of the rock

surfaces and the vibrant sheen if sand as the tide ebbs. All are captured in

layers of paint and collage in a painstaking journey – from drawing from life in

these distant locations, often hiking for miles with a tent on her back, through

to the finished painting – giving the viewer an instant emotion and vision of a

distant place, almost other-worldly. The contemporary treatment of the raw

and mystical beauty of these places has earned Beth many followers of her

work.

This major new collection sees Beth exploring the seascapes and landscapes

of Scotland’s Western Island, looking chiefly at coastlines and shores. Born in

the neighbouring isle of Tiree, Beth is revisiting echoes of her past and her

early childhood paintings of the sea on trips with her father.

Beth graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1995 with BA (hons,) won

The RSA Benno Schotz award in 1997 and won second place in the 2011

Jolomo Bank of Scotland competition – the largest Art prize in Scotland.

Her return to her Highland roots has deepened her continuing artistic

exploration of land and sea. A move in early 2013 to Inverbroom, in Wester

Ross, took her back to where she feels she really belongs. She now has more

time to spend in the surroundings that have inspired so much of her work.

Beth said “Returning to favourite childhood haunts and seeing them afresh

has given my painting a new dimension allowing memories to combine with

new sights and experiences.”

Indeed, her work – in mixed media – vividly evokes the fleeting moment of a

surging tide crashing onto headland or hissing through rock pools, the sharp

intensity of a shaft of brilliant sunshine through a swirling cloud of mist, rain or

spindrift, at the same time raising the possibility of a primeval landscape.

As a native of the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides, Beth has a deep

understanding of how rapidly changing and often extreme weather patterns

are an integral part of the rugged beauty of the north-west Highlands.

Her work has always been based on observation and drawing outdoors is

fundamental to her working methods. She says “I find more and more now

that I want to retain the spontaneity of the initial impressions and sketches in

the final pieces.”

There has been a steady growing recognition for an artist with a unique eye

and the ability to transfer onto canvas – on a grand scale when necessary –

the colours, textures and moods of the dramatic landscape around her.

“My work has sometimes been described as having an otherworldly quality to

it and, in a sense, this is partly my objective.”

This award winning artist has gone from strength to strength since her first

solo exhibition here at Doubtfire Gallery in 2012.

Doubtfire Gallery

3 South East Circus Place EH3 6TJ

www.doubtfiregallery.com

Doubtfire Gallery can provide further digital images of the exhibiting

artists work.

For more information, please contact:

Jane Muir: art@doubtfiregallery.com <mailto:art@doubtfiregallery.com>

Gallery open Wednesday to Friday 10am – 5pm. Saturday 12 noon – 5pm, or

by appointment.