Beth Renwick
Beth Renwick is a local who graduated from Ullapool High School last year and is going on to study fine art at university.
Personal statement
During the Portfolio Course, I got to try oil painting for the first time and it has since become one of my favourite mediums. I can take my time to paint, I have the freedom to mix exact colours which makes it better for achieving skin tones in portraiture and it has allowed me to work on a larger scale.
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My textile pieces and oil paintings are linked. I am interested in collaging pieces together – digitally and using fabrics and I like areas to have their own distinct colour which is embellished with detail or texture. Although the results are very different I feel I have a similar working method between textiles and oil. I physically or digitally cut-out shapes to highlight areas like the eyes. I also select areas to leave unpainted or unstitched to give a focal point.
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I work with the theme of warping the face and body. Textiles and painting allow me to achieve this in different ways. Textiles naturally warp themselves and I work with that, cutting and reassembling the fabric and then placing the portrait on top depending on how it fits in.
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My textile portraits are fully unrealistic because the colour and the shapes are more abstracted, while my oil paintings use distorted realism.
