Having spent her early childhood in Tiree on Scotland’s west coast, Beth Robertson Fiddes studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 1995, and continuing to draw and paint, travelling around the West Highands and Islands to collect source material and make sketches, which she works up into larger pieces in her studio. She is interested in the passage of time, and the human experience of witnessing the awesome energy and life in the sea, capturing the breaking of splashing waves and angry waters – although representing fleeting moments, the paintings signify nature’s magnitude and endurance over time, communicating a combination of the ephemeral human experience and the almost-unimaginable timespan of nature. She achieves this by adding paper and paint to the composition, then washing parts off and sanding elements things back repeatedly.

The exhibition, of ten new paintings, explores in particular the unique tidal light of the west coast, inspired by not only her adult experience of living and working in the Highlands, but also her memories of Beth’s childhood – playing and exploring in all weathers, enchanted by stories and songs about lost cities under the sea, kelpies and fairies.

The exhibition is being shown alongside an exhibition by Kate Bentley, centring on her fascination with the kimono. Kate employs a comparable technique to Beth’s.