Sandcastles
currently on display at the Jane Adams Gallery, St Just
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From
Foel Eryr
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October
afternoon
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Winter
storm
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across
Aberfelin Bay, Trefin
currently on display
at The Mill Trefin
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dusk
light over Trefin,
currently on display
at Makers Mark
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Cottage
on the mountain
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Spring
blossom 2012
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Melin
Trefin 2012 SOLD
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Aberfelin
Bay, with Trefin in the distance
currently on display
at The Mill Trefin
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Tafarn
y Bwlch, autumn 2011
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Cottage
on Garn Fawr 2
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Winter
scorch
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Carn
Meini
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from
Garn Fawr 2012
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Caerfai
afternoon
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Cold
day on Foel Eryr
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early
morning glow
currently on display
at the Makers Mark
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Walking
the dog, Trefin 3
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The
road to Mynachlogddu
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Receding
tide
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Pwll
Deri
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Carreg
Samson
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winter
sun, Preseli
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Treleddyd
at dusk
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Trehilyn
at dusk
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Winter
afternoon sun
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Cold
afternoon, North
Pembrokeshire
coast
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reverie
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Nolton,
July evening
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Brynberian
Garden
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Shrubbery
1
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Strumble
Head
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On
the coast path, Trefin, with Penberi in the distance
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across
the water
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Abereiddi
evening
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Althoug her parents were from
Pembrokeshire, Beth Robinson was brought up in Chepstow, Monmouthshire. She
graduated in Music from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the
Royal Academy of Music before embarking upon a career in opera. Under the
name Beth Michael she has worked with companies including Scottish Opera,
Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Bayreuth
Festival Opera and English Touring Opera, singing roles ranging from Madam
Butterfly, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, the Merry Widow to Cenerentola and
Carmen. For many years she was a member of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden,
where she met her husband Alan, a stage technician
.
in performance at Covent Garden
At the age
of eleven, Beth had to make the choice whether to study music or art, and
although she had experimented with silk painting, it was not until she and
Alan moved to Trefin in North Pembrokeshire, when she retired from singing
due to health problems that she was finally able to explore her talent for
painting.
From the
first, she has found a ready audience for her work, with its emphasis on
the light changes and moods of the North Pembrokeshire land and seascapes.
Her work is sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, but always demonstrate
her emotional response to the scene before her. Beth's paintings now hang
in many parts of the world, and are also owned by some well known artists.
Beth's work has been exhibited both locally and nationally,
and a couple of years ago was she was one of only 100 artists across Britain
invited to take part in the prestigious Discerning Eye/ING Platform 100 exhibition
in London and touring throughout England.
Beth and Alan (who, very conveniently, is now a picture framer!)
now live in the foothills of the Preselis with a menagerie of border collies
and cats.
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Beth says:
I was asked
by a student who was studying my work as part of her course what my techniques
and influences were and this is what I wrote:
Technique:
As I’m self taught, I’m not sure what
I SHOULD be doing, but basically, I just shove loads of paint on until it
looks right.
I tend to destroy brushes, as I’m very
heavy handed with them, so like to use a palette knife and fingers.
A damp cloth is also useful for blending
or for removing paint.
If I want to paint a scene, I spend
a lot of time just observing light effects and what the colours the different
times of day bring out.
I’ll take a photograph for the landmarks,
and sometimes do a sketch in situ, then work in my studio. The photograph
is printed out with low resolution or greyscale, and I put it aside
once I have the picture blocked out on the canvas/paper. Then I start to
move the paint around. This sometimes removes the landmarks I’ve blocked out;
but if it looks ok, I’ll just go with it.
If you look at any view in sunshine,
try nearly closing your eyes – you’ll sometimes see the refracted light
through your eyelashes – it’s a reminder that our brains will filter the
green of grass, for example, to be fairly uniform. But actually, if
you really look, you can see blues, reds, yellows, purples, browns as well
as loads of greens.
I love the impressionists – Manet,
Monet , Degas, etc. etc. – basically all of the ones that create effects
with light and colour, and I have to make a conscious decision not to look
at too much Turner, in case I produce clones…. Another master of light is
Andrew Wyeth. Where he lived, the light is very cold so colours are muted
and subdued, but he has a great variation in his limited palette, with great
use of light and shadows.
Beth Robinson's blog
morning
shore
limited edition
prints available
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Buddy
at work
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Silent
evening light
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Bringing
home the catch
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Abercastle
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Brecon
Beacons
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Strumble
Head 2012
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Carn
Llidi from Whitesands SOLD
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evening,
June
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