Shabs Beigh: Painting Landscapes

Nature is therapeutic. I paint a lot of it. I spend a lot of time in it. Looking at water has a meditative effect on us, and I have always wondered why? A lot of my work is reflections of nature in water. They are difficult to paint, but I do like a challenge. Painting the coast is different from painting a river bed, a pond or a lake.

One of my latest works is a painting of the River Wharf. I stayed in Wetherby with work, and used to go for morning walks along the banks of the Wharf. The walk was more about the visual of the Wharf in the early hours of the morning than anything else. I would sit there at the river bank, enjoying the gentle flow of the river and feeling calm; occasionally spotting someone fishing on the bank. The reflection of trees, the sky and the different shades of green were just an absolute delight to watch. I am particularly fond of the point where the water meets the trees. The greenish blue shade lingers right at the back in the distance. It is the same colour you see when you look at a forest from a distance. I just love that colour.

Howard Hues (the painter) used to do the same thing watching the River Ganges for hours at end, on his trips to India. Then he would come back to England and paint it, without having made any sketches or physical notes. Pure visual memory and influence.

The making of a painting starts just like that: A focused uninterrupted keen eye, a lot of thinking, visualising and letting it sink in and influence you.

I have painted: the chalk cliffs of Dover; South Stack in Holyhead, Anglesey, North Wales; Antibes shore in south France where Picasso used to spend summers with his family; Lake Como in Italy; the ponds in Bodnant Garden in North Wales, and I nearly forgot the Mullion and the Lizard point from the Cornish coast. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world on a good sunny day. I love St Ives. I have visited all these places and you should if you get a chance. The South of France was made popular by impressionists painting it after all.

contact: beighshabir@mac.com

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