An independent Edinburgh art gallery has announced details of a new exhibition of work from Scottish artist Beth Robertson-Fiddes.
Uisge will be Beth’s first solo exhibition at Morningside Gallery. Comprising almost thirty new paintings, this exhibition explores the coastal and inland waters of the West Highlands where the artist lives and works.
The exhibition is named Uisge – meaning water in Gaelic, and no doubt a familiar word for whisky connoisseurs! Beth’s paintings, many super-sized, capture crashing tides, flowing rivers, rock pools of immeasurable depth and kaleidoscopic reflections – the waters of life. It emerges as much out of her adult experience of living and working in the Highlands, as it does her childhood spent on Tiree, playing outside in the cold rain, sleet and snow, always finding warmth in the rockpools, learning stories and songs about lost cities under the sea, kelpies and child-stealing fairies.
Beth’s method of working on the paintings reflects her interest in continuity and change; being both in the moment and part of a larger evolving process. She adds paper and paint, washes parts off, sands things back time after time until she’s happy with the emerging painting. Some paintings emerge quickly, with little battle, and others prove to be a stronger force to be reckoned with!
Commenting on the exhibition, Eileadh Swan, Director of Morningside Gallery said,
“We’re really excited to welcome Beth to the gallery on Friday 7 February, for a Private View ahead of the exhibition launch the following day. Her paintings have an otherworldly quality, conveying the sense and scale of being a person within these remote places. With tides, splashes, breaking waves and angry waters she captures very specific moments, and fills them with a sense of nature’s magnitude and endurance over time. We look forward to raising a glass to this incredible collection of paintings. Uisge Beatha!”
Based at Church Hill in Morningside, the gallery will display almost 30 new paintings for the exhibition, which can also be viewed online and toured as a virtual exhibition for anyone who can’t make it to Edinburgh.
The exhibition will run in the gallery from Saturday 8 – 22 February, and is open to the public. There is an opportunity to meet the artist in the gallery on Friday 7 February, from 6 – 8pm. For more details or to attend the Private View, contact the gallery via morningsidegallery.co.uk.
