It is hard to imagine today but there was once a time when hospital
walls were kept resolutely bare for the sake of hygiene as paintings were considered
to be dust traps. Happily these days are long gone and it is now widely
recognised that images have a powerful and positive impact on the wellbeing of
all who frequent healthcare settings, the patients of course and also the
visitors and staff.
Study for Tuscan Summer mixed media, 38x38cm
AiH Collection
AiH Collection
On a primal level images connect directly with our subconscious
and we respond to them with our senses, our feelings and emotions, even more so,
research reveals, when they depict nature and the landscape.
Gabrielle Reith’s paintings with their strong colours and
forms have the ability to convey a sense of place, real or imagined, and
to transport us somewhere else.
Her linear compositions transform terrain and houses into
elemental shapes verging on abstraction. The modernist square format she uses
here serves to intensify the sense of rhythm and tension within the canvas. The
artist focuses our mind on a particular feature or colour thus enhancing our
experience of the work.
Study for Assisi mixed media, 38x38cm
AiH Collection
AiH Collection
Reith graduated from Gray’s School of Art in 1998 and the paintings in the Art in Healthcare Collection date from her degree show. She was brought up in
Aberdeenshire where she still lives today. Landscapes of great beauty have
influenced her all her life and have trained her eyes from an early age to
process seasonal changes and their colour variations. She has taken this
practice with her on her travels abroad.
In both paintings Study
for Assisi and Study for a Tuscan
Summer the heat of Italy is palpable in the ochre tainted stones and purple
shadows. The architectural details are abbreviated to curves and arches
like shorthand signs to evoke the romanesque style typical of that region.
Study for Montenagiche mixed media, 38x38cm
AiH Collection
AiH Collection
In sharp contrast, the two other paintings in the Art in Healthcare
Collection with their blue and green tones immerse the viewer in the coolness
of the Tuscan night. When the sun has ceased to beat down hard and recedes, giving
way to dusk and darkness, ambiguous shapes begin to emerge, assuming mass and volume
and an air of mystery.
Study for 10 Summer Minutes mixed media, 38x38cm
AiH Collection
AiH Collection
Reith reinvents the landscape. She flattens it and then reintroduces
depth with patterns and texture. By breaking it down into distinctive shapes, motifs and dark outlines that delineate the blocks of colours, the artist creates a universal language of signs and symbols.
Through this process, the landscape loses its
specificity, it escapes the confines of geographical coordinates and enters the
realm of the imagination. It becomes all our landscapes.
Since the late 1990s, Gabrielle Reith has developed a successful practice as designer and maker of a varied range of products inspired by the natural world and her young family. With their strong lines and colours, her recent textiles, carved jewellery and paper designs represent the natural expansion of her painterly talent.
Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh.
Gabrielle Reith's website http://www.g-r-a.co.uk/
And special thanks to Balfour Beatty Investments and Arts & Business Scotland for their financial support, which has enabled Art in Healthcare to produce 18 Artist Uncovered blog posts and accompanying video productions.
