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.
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.
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.
My textile portraits are fully unrealistic because the colour and the shapes are more abstracted, while my oil paintings use distorted realism.
