Beth S. Robertson

Beth S. Robertson is an artist, educator, and researcher with a passion for using art as a means of communicating and furthering knowledge.

In 2005 Beth gained a BA(Hons) in Illustration and Printmaking followed by a Master of Design. Her research focused on how Visual Literacy can help children with learning difficulties to retain information for greater learning outcomes. She tells us; “As an educator, I believe that it is essential that a high proportion of all learning is visual, given that many people within our communities are Neurodivergent and as a result often process information visually.” Using Illustration and Printmaking processes, Beth explored how education systems could include a greater proportion of Visual Literacy to better suit different ways of learning.

She then went on to study an MSc in Art Psychotherapy (2008) at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. As a qualified Art Psychotherapist, Beth has worked with many client groups from forensic to social work settings, and has helped set up and establish Art Psychotherapy for chronically ill children within waiting areas in 3 hospitals in Scotland.

It was not until 2020 that Beth began to explore selling her work professionally and joining social media for the first time. Her personal practice takes inspiration from her surroundings; a Scottish village surrounded by countryside and a river that meets the sea. Beth is inspired by nature, symbolism, and mystical religion, and all of her work draws upon these sources. She states; “I will often go out walking taking photographs and sketching plants to use in my engravings. I feel connected to the ancient beliefs and people of Scotland and try to add symbolism from those times into my work. The past is inside the present and the two are interconnected.”

All of Beth’s prints start off as hand drawn compositions which can take many hours of drawing before they even make it to wood or lino. “The drawing part of the process is very important to me and my trusty pen and pencil are as much a part of the print as the finished piece,” says the printmaker. Once the illustration has been transferred, then the engraving begins. Beth has a large selection of tools to choose from and takes advantage of the different marks they leave on the surface of the wood or lino.

Once the relief block is ready, she heads out to her garage studio and takes a proof on her 19^th century printing press. She comments; “I am completely in love with my press and have named him Dante, without my press I would not be able to produce the level of quality I look for in a print.”

Beth is currently working on some colour prints using both the reduction method and combining wood engraving and linocut together. She hopes to keep refining her practice in this area over the next few months.

www.endgrainprints.com
@end.grain.prints

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