The foundation of Beth Nicholas' body of work lies in the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi: which when roughly translated describes the exploration of the beauty found within transience, imperfection, impermanence and the incomplete.  From finding a rotting...

The foundation of Beth Nicholas' body of work lies in the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi: which when roughly translated describes the exploration of the beauty found within transience, imperfection, impermanence and the incomplete.  From finding a rotting garment by a stream to a stream of consciousness, Nicholas' collection travels through ethereal, abstract landscape style paintings into figurative ink drawings that investigate the subconscious. Nicholas spends time manipulating the different mediums and inks to find the right composition and then when the work is finally dry, she finds ways to manipulate and work on top of what has already been created. The work therefore is about time and energy and above all, patience. In this piece, Sea View, Nicholas took into consideration the huge expanses of sea views that our guests would enjoy whilst on board, spending time considering the transient ways in which the sun would hit the water as we move through it. The challenge of painting a piece as big as this was something the artist had never attempted before, this piece is over nine meters tall and 4 meters wide. Painted in a studio warehouse in the south west of the UK, over a very wet winter, the pitter patter of the raindrops on the corrugated ceiling have also been an influential and inspiring factor to this work. Pools of inky water have formed into corral like shapes and gold tendrils move throughout connecting each area to form a painting whose world is reminiscent of both under and over water landscapes.