KATE BENTLEY : TWO WORLDS
“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.”
John Ruskin
Kate’s explorative nature and unique
imagination has created a truly striking collection of paintings which explore two main subjects – Edinburgh as a city and Kate’s love
of gardens – her own, those of her imagination and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. Two main subjects, Two Worlds, and artist
equally at home in the city and coastal South West Scotland where she is based. Beyond the obvious differences in subject matter, the
idea of two worlds also underpins the way Kate engages with her subjects and her materials.
The interplay of the real and the imagined is present in all of Kate’s paintings, along with fearless experimentation and an urge to tear
up the rule book. Her location and landscape hugely influences her subject matter and in many ways Kate is a ‘painter of life’, using
traditional methods of en-plein airsessions and life drawing to create her work. Other paintings start with the mark making, and Kate
works with the shapes and colours she creates to begin to bring some realism into the work, to tease out a subject. More often than
not, as soon as realism begins to tip the balance within a painting, Kate disrupts the flow, breaks the line, moves the viewer’s eye into
another field or onto another detail elsewhere. Sometimes paintings which feel complete are stripped back – destroyed almost – and
then layered up again, as she employs various techniques and materials – projected photographs, the reflection of her garden in the
studio door, old paintings, unexpected patterns – to give the painting a completely new dimension.
We see these techniques at play within many of her garden paintings, which are both botanical studies and imaginative narrative works
in equal measure. Initially they burst forth with verdant yellows and greens, we see lush leaves and bright flowers, but also what might
be a person, or is it just a reflection of a person? We look further and there are some steps. We walk down them and out beyond the
painting … Perspective is thrown out of the window and the kaleidoscopic element in so many of Kate’s works makes it almost impossible
to behold the scene complete upon first viewing. The effect can be quite dazzling, as light is used to both reflect and refract; at times
it is as though we are seeing the subject through the reflections of a beautiful old mirror, distressed and fractured with age. There are
moments of recognition before the line is broken again and we are taken somewhere else.
Again, within Kate’s paintings of Edinburgh, reality is observed initially but soon replaced by a kaleidoscopic view of the city. Edinburgh
is presented a witness to the many stories told and lives lived, past and present. A city of beautiful gardens and breath-taking natural
landmarks sitting side-by-side with historical architecture. Everything is here and all at once, as past and present, natural and human
made, real and imagined are woven together with colour, shape and pattern. The mark making in these paintings, like all of Kate’s work
leads the eye to new places, new points of interest, and once the eye settles, journeying through the paintings feels like an adventure;
both expansive and immensely satisfying.
Please contact us for further details on the Private View and for a Preview of the Images.