INTRODUCTION
It is with great pleasure that I introduce our first solo exhibition of Kate Bentley’s paintings. 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 an 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 the landscape hugely influences her subject matter and in many ways Kate is a ‘painter of life’, using traditional methods of en-plein air sessions 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 as 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. Eileadh Swan Gallery Director
Notes
All paintings are for sale and may be purchased or reserved prior to the exhibition opening. We kindly request that decisions on reserves are made by 5pm on Friday the 2nd of May.
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