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| BETH ROBERTSON FIDDES | Big Wave Over Rocks | mixed media | 122 x 152cm |
In this stunning new body of work, Beth Robertson Fiddes
returns to landscapes in Scotland’s far Northwest, St Kilda and Iceland that
have remained with her, bringing us face to face with forces of nature and the
power of memory. Refreshingly we’re not just confronted with a scene, but with
a highly distilled, residual sense of place, held in the mind. Fiddes’ approach
to land and seascape is to experience it directly, often incorporating bold
first response drawings, collaged into the ground of her paintings. The
strength of these marks and the artist’s adept layering of media reflect the
immeasurable depth of the landscape. What is so powerful in this latest work,
is seeing the artist embrace her holistic experience of the environment and
command of technique, exploring how ideas of North, genetic memory and dreams
inform how we see. Fiddes has captured what is most essential about our need to
connect with the natural world, tapping into an inheritance of understanding
that is deeply personal and omnipresent. We’re led into hollows and fathomless
pools that trigger the imagination, deep rooted memories and narratives that
make us who we are.
The cinematic feel of her paintings is the result of a fluid
approach to time and a creative process of immersion, shared with the
viewer. There’s natural meld and resist
in Fiddes’ unique handling of drawn elements, burnt marks, adhesive, oils and
acrylics. Her richly layered surfaces are as subtle and dynamic as the
ever-changing land and seascape. This fluidity is an essential part of the
artist’s process, in terms of technical skill, experimentation and as a
powerful invocation of human memory. Outstandingly drawn from recollection, the
emotional undercurrent, psychological gravity and elusiveness of the Northern
landscape is the beating heart of this work.
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| BETH ROBERTSON FIDDES | Dun from Hirta | mixed media | 81 x 122cm |
Standing on ancient fissures of rock, we feel we’re in the
presence of geological forces more enduring than ourselves, which can be
comforting and confrontational. Often the viewer’s foreground is a rocky
outcrop, where we stand in awe of nature, in its enormity and indifference to
human timescales. These threshold spaces can make us feel exhilarated and
equally vulnerable. In Big Wave Over Rock
(mixed media, 122 x 152cm) we’re held in a moment of anticipation where the
tide draws its breath. The mesmerizing pull of an unfurling wave in liquid
emerald and turquoise is immediately compelling. The undertow of ocean currents
over the golden russet slip of rock and seaweed is palpable. However, there is
a wider sense of recognition in this suspended moment, a subtly gathering
rhythm of grey forms and tonality behind the beauty of the breaking wave, a
feeling of North that binds us to earthly gravity in the foreground and
evaporates into the horizon, sea becoming sky.
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| BETH ROBERTSON FIDDES | Immersion | mixed media | 76 x 107cm |
In Dun from Hirta (mixed media, 81 x 122cm) two points of light, the arc of the cliff edge and the inward glow of the horizon beckon us towards a space we cannot physically enter. The monumental landforms which appear as a bridge remain just out of reach, mirroring the way that St Kilda remains fertile ground in the global imagination. Although the landscape is uninhabited, Dun has a figurative presence of its own. This sense of the landscape as witness is also communicated very powerfully in Immersion (mixed media, 76 x 107cm) where Fiddes’ depiction of a stark, pale ravine creates a space of embrace and reckoning. Based on memories of Thingvellir in Iceland, the artist positions the viewer as witness, drawn into the glacial pool below. Depth of hue and shadow is offset by an apex of light, leading the eye into a shifting atmosphere of mist. Volcanic rifts foreshadow this human amphitheatre, the site of the first parliament, a place of law-making and punishment dating from the 10th Century. Whether we know its history or not, Fiddes’ sensitive rendering of place follows the natural strata of stone and the complex nature of human experience. It is a breath-taking distillation of the North in vision and execution, founded on memory and dreams.
Georgina Coburn
BETH ROBERTSON FIDDES Recollection - Northern Dreams is on show at Kilmorack Gallery 16 March - 20 April 2019.
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