Beth Shapeero
Above |
'Underbelly', 2025
Mixed Paint on Canvas
Painting
110 X 80
£1400
Available framed or unframed from sistercontemporary.com
Underbelly is part of a new series of paintings developed in 2025. After relocating to a spacious studio near Glasgow – an abandoned 90’s call centre, Beth has been given the space to work on multiple large canvases for the first time, exploring how her style adapts to this new medium. She has leaned into using raw, untreated canvas and heavily diluted paint, savouring the softened edges, gentle diffusion, and the loss of control as colours bleed and merge across the fabric.
When painting, Beth moves between completely letting go of trying to make a specific image and seeing where the forms will take her, working from instinct, —and picturing simplified images of memories or sensations. Often, these images are inspired by visceral physical feelings: a lump in the throat, anxious knots in the stomach, or moments of anticipation, such as the expectation of touch.
In Underbelly, a dark form sits waiting. Ominous and still — a kraken, a looming presence, a potential threat. Does it reside within the body, or is it something external? And what is the difference? A perceived external threat settles inside us as fear.
Though brooding and literally dark, the painting remains soft, even beautiful. The forms are gentle; the composition feels easy, almost comforting. Against the raw canvas, the bleeding edges hold a quiet tension between menace and tenderness. Sometimes the things that unsettle us most also offer a strange familiarity.
Underbelly, a contemporary painting, would speak to many people. My friend
@sjlfeatherstone shared a post of a
@lemondesauvage paper earlier, and it feels that this painting would sit equally well on that paper as it would on a gallery wall. It suits an authentic space and place. Emotions expressed in this painting are not static and do indeed transcend.
#inkscharcoal #glasgowcanvas #kraken #unsettlingandfamiliar #darksofttenderandbeautiful #bethshapeero #authenticcontemporaryart