The snow in early March may have prevented the artist from attending her private view, but it certainly didn’t stop us from celebrating the opening of Looking for the Light, our spring exhibition with Pascale Rentsch RSW. The much-anticipated solo show started a week later, where Pascale talked through her new body of work, created exclusively for Watermark Gallery.
In the video coverage taken just before the opening Pascale talks with owner of Watermark Gallery, Liz Hawkes about the inspiration and ideas behind this year’s new exhibition. The key theme is, as the title suggests, the light which Pascale said she is always keen to capture no matter what type of day it is. “When I go outside I am always looking for the light. It might just be a tiny glint or glimmer on the side of a rock or a flower but whenever I see it I want to capture it as it makes me feel positive and gives me hope.”
The result is a very strong selection of 25 all new paintings of the landscape near Pascale’s home in East Lothian, a home she shares with her husband, bird expert and artist Darren Woodhead SWLA and their three boys. Her knowledge and appreciation of the area are clearly portrayed in her paintings which are not only visually very beautiful but also have appropriate titles such as “In Awe”, “Sea Sanctuary” and “Golden Shore”. When describing how she decides what to paint Pascale quite often talks about just seeing a particular spot and feeling compelled to paint. The location of “Where the Wildflowers Are” was seen whilst out with a friend, whilst “River Edge I” was painted alongside her mother who was visiting from Switzerland at the time. And although it was particularly foggy on the day she painted “Coastline Gorse” the mist only heightened the yellow colour of the gorse, which she is able to convey beautifully in the painting.
We are delighted that Pascale chose Watermark Gallery as the venue for her first solo exhibition since being awarded full membership of the prestigious Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) in autumn 2022. Due to the late start Looking for the Light will continue until 15th April 2023 and is available to view in our Harrogate gallery and also on this website.
View the exhibition here.
